Chuck Versus Agent Insanity
by FreeVessel
Summary: The day after Ellie's wedding. Carina comes around to play a major role once the game has changed.
1. Chapter 1

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter I

The Morning After

Damn! It was obviously 7 am. The alarm clock would tell him that. Buzzzzzzzz.

'If only I had one of these knifes, a-la-Sarah. I may try killing the bug,' Chuck moaned but couldn't open his eyes. Yesterday his sister Ellie finally got married. First try unsuccessful. But the second one was his personal triumph. Then Chuck decided to upload Intersect 2.0 into his head. This time it was his decision. And Bryce Larkin had died before his eyes.

It was the craziest day of his life.

He was only 30% awake, give or take. Yeah, that would be take. Why was the alarm clock buzzing and not playing one of his favorite songs? _Christmas TV_ was now his weapon of choice even if he was still 6 months away from Christmas. Give or take. Yeah, that one would be give.

He tried to open his eyes again. Eyelids, so heavily glued. He wasn't able to lift them. 'What's going on with me?' he wondered. Was he blind? Was this some new Intersect state?

Yesterday, his father warned Chuck about what Bryce had told him. The data architecture of the new Intersect was modified after Stephen Bartowski finished his part. All Bryce had told him was, 'You don't wanna know'.

Not exactly good news in my book, Chuck thought, sighing.

He still couldn't open his eyes. Chuck decided to try something different.

His hands were lying beside his body, covered under a sheet or some blanket. He couldn't tell. His senses were still semi-asleep. Had he been sedated? He tried to raise them toward his head, rub his eyes. So they finally open.

Aaaaah!

He was screaming. Mentally, that is. His mouth was still unable to open.

_He didn't have his boxers on._ Was he completely naked? What was going on? Has he been captured by Fulcrum, or by these new bad guys, Bryce had told him? _The Ring_ or something?

His hands tried to reach his face, so he could help the eyes open.

For God's sake, he had a sleeping mask on him. He had never used one. Slowly, he took it off. Still nothing. He rubbed his eyes, and they finally started to open, millimeter by millimeter.

He must have been sedated.

No, this wasn't his room. He was in a hotel. The interior reminded Sarah's hotel, the wallpaper and the furniture were very similar. But the configuration was different. Where was he? Something wasn't feeling right.

He turned to his left. Nobody there, but from the sheets he could tell that somebody had slept next to him. Please, be Sarah, oh, God, please, be Sarah!

But why isn't this her room, then? If it was Sarah, it wasn't any of her perfumes that he knew.

His senses were rapidly coming back now, together with the increasing panic. There was something about this perfume ….

He could now hear the water running in the bathroom. Somebody was taking a shower.

Chuck, feeling the panic taking over him, turned on his right side, his back towards the bathroom door, clenching on the sheets. Then he remembered about the missing boxers, turned left, rose up a bit, and looked for them.

'Boxers, boxers, boxers,' he was now muttering.

There were no boxers anywhere he could see. He tried to peek under the bed but at that moment the door of the bathroom clicked. Chuck was already back in his previous position, pretending to sleep, his back facing the bathroom.

The door opened and a slim woman, wrapped in a towel stepped in Chuck's hotel room.

It was Carina.

She looked at Chuck.

Her trained eye spotted almost immediately the tension in Chuck's position. He was just pretending to sleep. Ha-ha.

_A spy who can't discern sleeping from pretending is a dead one._ Carina was still alive and doing pretty well.

She smiled. She was about to have some fun with the nerd.

'Chucky, are you still sleeping, sleepyhead?' Carina was in her typical playful mode.

Chuck didn't know what to do, so he just went on with the sleeping ruse.

'I see,' Carina smirked.

She stretched, yawning, her towel fell down on the floor. Carina was naked and feeling really well. She stretched and stretched and stretched. She was really enjoying this.

Mmmm-mmm.

'Casey must be watching this on his cameras now,' she thought, smiling wide.

Chuck could hear the sounds of pleasure very well. Now his senses were really sharp. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't connect it to the right person. Who was that?

He tried to shut his eyes down even more. As if that had been possible.

In less than 5 seconds however, his curiosity won over. He slightly opened his left eye, looking at the wooden, lacquered furniture against him. The vague profile of Carina's naked body was there. That much he could tell. He immediately closed it back.

Mmmmmmmmm, I think I'm taking another nap.' Carina was pretending that Chuck couldn't hear her. Talking just to herself.

'After so little sleep, last night, I better recharge myself,' she slipped her naked body under the covers, next to Chuck.

Chuck wasn't sure how close she was to him. Was his own cover reaching enough to hide the entirety of him? Carina, still backwards to him, tried to find a better place, moving even further to the middle.

Chuck's eyes were now wide open. Was he feeling someone's behind, pressed on his now? That definitely was the case, as whoever this female was, she hadn't been thorough enough with the towel. That much Chuck could tell. His own sheet was a bit wet now.

Chuck couldn't remember to have ever been that tense in his life. Slowly, actually at snail's speed, he moved away from her, micrometer by micrometer. He felt safe again when he was about a inch away.

Carina was so enjoying this.

She sighed and murmured, loud enough for Chuck to hear it, 'Who could've thought that I'd have the wildest sex of my life with the nerd.'

Chuck's eyes were now wide open again.

'What!', Chuck couldn't control himself, he had jumped, turning himself back to Carina, his sheet falling dangerously low, he recovered, and was now looking angrily at Carina.

Slowly, Carina turned back.

"You?, What …", Chuck was staggered.

'Oh, Chucky, my toy-boy. I thought you were still sleeping, dear.'

'Carina, what are you doing here?', Chuck was getting very anxious, 'Where am I, what is this place and last, but not least, _where are my boxers_?

Chuck was desperate. 'Do you have any idea how little confidence a man has, when he has no boxers on him?' was Chuck's next question, but he preferred to keep it to himself.

He couldn't believe that he would be in his standard rambling mode even under these extreme circumstances.

'Oh, Chucky, I'm so sorry, I don't remember you in boxers. Do you think that's wrong? There was so much else to remember, after all.' Carina said innocently.

"Carina', now Chuck was shouting, "where are my boxers, and pants and whatever clothes I was in yesterday. Where is everybody, where is Sarah, my sister, why don't I remember last night. Did you, or anybody else, for that matter, tranq me?'

'Chucky, calm down, dear, you're asking what happened last night. Well, a gentleman doesn't talk about that sort of stuff, remember? She was reminding him his own words from a year ago. _Well, think of me as a gentleman but with the right set of chromosomes_,' she went on. 'I'm going to sleep now. Feel free to look for your clothes. They must be somewhere around. Nighty night.'

Carina turned again on her left side and pretended to fall asleep. Or maybe she did indeed.

Chuck was feeling less and less capable to control himself. He needed answers but first he needed some underwear.

Carina was fast asleep or just pretending, whatever, he didn't care. He tightly wrapped himself with his cover and got up.

'Thank you god, that we have separate covers.' Chuck was dancing around on his toes, desperately looking for any sign of his clothes.

No such luck. He suddenly realized it wasn't a hotel room but a suite. He headed to the living room, no luck. Back to the bedroom, into the bathroom. No, no clothes. Damn. Where is the kitchen, kitchen, he finally got there.

Two muscular men, in plainclothes, were sitting there on the table, reading newspapers. They had their guns on the table.

'Agent Carmichael, good morning, sir! I hope you slept well.' said the older one. He was obviously the one in charge.

Chuck was stunned. Have those two been here all the time? During his escapade last night?

But then, on the third chair he saw his clothes, neatly folded, shoes under the chair. Thank you god, thank you!

'Gentlemen, may I have my clothes, please. First order of the day is what? Get dressed. I think I read it somewhere in the CIA manual."

'Sir, yes, sir.' those two were obviously former military.

'Agent Carmichael, I'm agent Jones, NSA,' said the elder one staring at Chuck, 'and this is my colleague, Agent Specter. 'We are really honored to be assigned to your operation, sir.'

'Where is Sarah, Casey?' Chuck inquired.

'Colonel Casey is expecting you at his quarters, sir.' Agent Walker must have arrived in Washington 3 hours ago.'

'Could you stop calling me sir, please?' Chuck was feeling really uncomfortable around these. He grabbed his clothes and shoes and turned around.

'Why on earth was Sarah in Washington?'

He was just about to leave the kitchen when he remembered that he needed to ask them one more question. The mother of all questions and grandmother of all mysteries. At least that's how Morgan would put it, if he was here now. Good that he wasn't.

"Guys.' Chuck had changed the tone, trying to be as friendly as possibly 'Do you happen to remember, hmmm, what happened here last night, I mean within the premises of your current assignment, I'm sure that it's strictly confidential but I already have the clearance as you might imagine, I mean …', Chuck was struggling with the words.

'Has anything happened between me and Carina?'

'You mean Agent Falcone? I'm sorry, sir, we are from the morning shift, we arrived here at 6 am. You and agent Falcone were already sleeping peacefully.'

Chuck couldn't help noticing that Jones was trying to tame down the emerging smile. The other agent was hiding his face behind the newspaper.

'Of course you are from the early shift, why not', Chuck signed. "Agent Falcone?" British accent, Italian name. Carina was clearly 100% certifiable.

He seemed to have accepted his fate – he would never know what actually happened.

'Gentlemen, I'll be back dressed in 5 minutes, so we go see colonel Casey.'

Chuck rushed back to the bathroom, cursing. And there, while getting dressed, it dawned on him.

Casey must have installed microphones and cameras in the suite. So whatever happened last night, must have been taped. There was no way Casey would have missed to do that.

'I'm gonna kill you Casey!,' snarled Chuck. He scanned the entire bathroom. Did Casey bug it too? Chuck decided to search carefully, everywhere. It was so important now.

Of course, here it was, under the sink, stuck there behind the pipe. 'You didn't even care to hide it well, condescending Reaganite.'

There was no point to even look for more. Clearly, the bedroom was under surveillance as well. _Everything was on tape on Casey's monitoring system!_

Now, Chuck knew that he had to ask Carina what happened.

Fully dressed, now Chuck had at least some of his confidence back. He entered the bedroom, sat down next to the sleeping Carina and tried to wake her up.

'Carina, wake up, I have to ask you something', a desperate Chuck shouted.

Carina Falcone, as this was indeed her true _family_ name, was the proverbial deep sleeper. She hadn't slept for over 36 hours when she got the call from her bosses urgently re-assigning her to Chuck. By coincidence, she was in LA again.

It wasn't that easy to wake her up now. But Chuck was in no mood to let go. Finally, she opened her eyes.

'What, Chuck, what do you want?' she mumbled.

'Carina, what happened last night, I was in this bed naked, then you turn up, what's going on here?' He was desperate. "Where is Sarah, you know a lot happened between me and her over the last year after you left, so, did anything …"

'Relax, Chuck, nothing happened. I was joking. I arrived at about 3 am, urgent re-assignment to protect you. You were sleeping there. There was a team of doctors here with some equipment, measuring your vitals or something. I guess you know why. You can ask the doctors if you don't believe me. Can I sleep know, please? You know, sleep deprivation is torture these days.'

Carina turned her back on Chuck and pretended to be fast asleep.

Relieved, Chuck left the room and joined the NSA agents.

Carina opened her eyes and smiled. Now, she was fully awake.

'Bye, bye, Chuck, bye, bye Intersect,' she sang to herself, imitating the _Bye Bye Life_ theme.

Her smile was widening. How naive this Nerd boy could be? He wasn't even her type. She told him that a year ago, didn't she?

It was just a small piece of the Intersect she was after this time. That's why she was trying real hard to stick around LA most of the time. Increase her chances.

XXX


	2. Chapter 2

Chuck Versus Agent Insanity

Chapter II

Another One

Chuck entered Casey's apartment without knocking or anything. That's how angry he was at the NSA goon for the bug he had just found in the bathroom. Had he seen him with Carina last night? Both in their birth suits?

When he gets into this kung-fu mode, he may apply some of the skills to Casey. It's been long overdue.

Casey was sitting on the couch in his living room, his feet up on the table. Reading a newspaper. Actually, when he sensed somebody was entering, he changed the page, as if trying to hide where he was.

Now his right hand was on his gun, stuck in a holster under the table. Casey had holsters with guns hidden in most places, where he used to stay longer. Thus, he could never be caught unprepared. Some of the statues contained stunt grenades, even in the Ronald Reagan statue.

But it was too late. Chuck had rushed into just too quickly. He saw the ad page, with some entries circled with a marker.

'Was Casey looking for a job? Worrying about getting laid off? With this economic crisis and the new administration, Reagan dinosaurs like him would be among the first on the chopping block.'

Chuck smirked. However, he decided not to zing Casey on this. He, himself had been suffering too much at his dead-end job. For too long. It'd be too hypocritical.

"Bartowski!', growled Casey, 'Is this some public property? Somebody missed to input the concept of knocking into the Intersect? What's the matter? I've been missing getting updated on your lady issues. You and Walker? Still on first base?

Casey had finished reviewing the tape with Chuck and Carina 10 minutes ago. He had deleted the feed from the computer and all traces of any such feed. But before that he recorded the video file on one of those small CDs, metal base, with ceramic layer to protect against scratches. No flash sticks, too unreliable. Colonel Casey knew how to store and protect his private database. Then he hid it in one of his own private safes.

The video file was innocent as far as Chuck was concerned but Carina had proved once more how rogue of an agent she actually was. Casey didn't mind having something juicy on her. He hadn't yet forgotten how he ended up hand-cuffed on the bed. After Carina seduced him, just to handcuff. And to add insult to injury, it happened not just once but twice. Casey grunted at the thought.

Chuck almost regretted for not zinging Casey about the job search already. If Casey would insist on killing him with his sarcasm, so should Chuck.

"Watch you mouth, Casey. If general Beckman were to hear that, you could be in the business of looking for a new job! With the current crisis looming you may end up at the Buy More. This time for real. With me supervising. Overseeing. Managing you.' Chuck was snickering.

He had forgotten that both he and Casey had already quit the Buy More. Not that they couldn't reapply for their old positions tomorrow.

Casey was breathing heavily, obviously wondering which way of the 15 he could think of, to kill Bartowski.

'Careful Casey,' Chuck went on, 'if I smell danger, who knows, I may flash on one of those Bruce Lee movies again and kick your …'

Colonel Casey, Chuck!', shouted somebody.

Neither of them had noticed that the monitor of the communication system to the DNI was on and they had been watched for who knows how long. Most probably, the mentioning of general Beckman's name had activated the connection. Now Casey remembered that he had left it on its standby mode. What a mistake! It was so embarrassing.

'Am I to infer that in the absence of agent Walker you two are unable to behave as grown-ups?' general Beckman's anger was still gathering force, 'At all?'

Casey couldn't think of anything to say.

'Colonel Casey? Or should I say, _Major_? Do you have any idea how many agents and veterans would like to keep their jobs or take yours, in this crisis, with all these budget cuts? Those here are job applications." She raised her hand, full of some papers. The general obviously knew how to push buttons. She hadn't climbed up the ladder just like that.

Casey was still recovering from the "major" thing.

'General. We were joking. Sometimes, we need to take things easy. You know how it is in the field.' He thought for a second or two, trying to find a way out. 'If you don't want to end up like Agent Montgomery, you need to let the steam off once in a while', he went on. 'And as you know, agent Montgomery was our best for over two decades.'

It was the first law of spy business. Nobody can survive without letting the steam off once in a while.

Beckman raised her brow. Yeah, that was so very true. Dyane remembered Roan from his better days. There was a trace of a smile on her face but she quickly recovered. So sad about late Roan. Killing his liver with all this alcohol.

'So, colonel,' she continued, Casey, visibly relaxed, 'what's the matter, why are you calling?'

'Nothing general. I'm really sorry for disturbing you. The communication system must have reactivated by itself. It must be a software glitch or something. I'll have Chuck, I mean, Bartowski.., I mean, agent Bartowski fix it.'

Now that Chuck had uploaded Intersect 2.0, with his new fighting capabilities, or as Chuck called them, the Bruce Lee Mode, Casey clearly had some respect after he had seen him fighting.

Since he still had all this uber-important info in his head and nobody knew whether the Bruce Lee Mode would be back and when, he needed as much protection as always.

And where is agent Falcone if I might ask?' the general inquired.

'She is resting general,' Casey replied. 'She needed it badly. The Asset is under my protection now. There is an NSA team outside my premises.'

"Chuck, agent Bartowski', the general went on, 'and how do you find your new protector, agent Carina Falcone? I hope she is not imposing or something. You worked together last year, didn't you?"

Chuck was so unprepared for this.

'Hmmm, it's very professional, general, strictly professional,' he said wondering how lame this must have sounded.

Casey was smiling, 'Yeah, idiot, 100% naked and butts fully engaged. What profession is that?"

The general continued: "did she give you any problems, agent Bartowski?"

"None I can't think of, general, none, whatsoever." Chuck was shaking his head.

Casey couldn't stop laughing inside. 'Yeah, she was trying to give him a lot, it's just that the nerd hadn't grown up yet.'

General Beckman was about to turn off the connection when somebody appeared behind her back. It was a gracious female figure in a business suit, inconspicuous; you meet women in such outfits everywhere in Washington. The face wasn't yet visible so they wondered who that could be. Some secretary of the general, something urgent going on there? They had never seen Beckman interrupted.

The figure approached the general's desk and leant ahead so Casey and Chuck finally saw who it was. Wow. Sarah Walker.

'Even if she puts on a 14th century armor suit, she'd still be, hmmm', Chuck thought.

'You're thinking of what is under the armor, idiot, that's why', Chuck told himself, remembering her in the shady hotel at Barstow, after she came out of the bathroom.

Remembering Barstow, he remembered the condom. The condom that wasn't there. That was officially, the most important non-existing condom in the world. He should call Guinness, so they make it official. After killing Morgan, of course.

'What was Sarah doing at the DNI's office anyway?' wondered Casey. She was summoned back to Washington by the CIA, urgently, on business "unrelated to the Intersect". Or so was Casey told. In a week or two, max, she should be back with Team Bartowski.

'Hi, Chuck, hello Casey.', her tone was business-like. 'I just dropped by to say hello to both of you. Doing OK without me there? Any problems with Carina?

Beckman frowned, 'Not exactly, Agent Walker. It seems like out of the entire team Bartowski, it's only you who managed to grow up in time. Those two still need their babysitters', the general watched backed at Casey, as sternly as she possibly could, her brow rising to its max.

Sarah tried her best not to laugh out loud. 'Thank God, Beckman was looking at the monitor.'

"General, I know, those two are fighting all the time, but only when there is no urgency around', Sarah tried, "but once the push comes to shove, so to speak, they become disciplined and concentrated on the mission. Both have cooperated on missions just …'

Beckman wouldn't buy that. "Enough, Agent Walker. Are you their lawyer now or what?" She watched back at Sarah, noticing her outfit. For general Beckman, everything outside military uniform was not worthy of wearing these days.

'Is this the new CIA uniform, Agent Walker?' she asked, forgetting that Chuck and Casey were still online.

No, general. I just need to stay under the radar. No need to attract any attention,' she said, blushing as she realized what she had just implied.

'Yeah,' Chuck thought. 'Under the spy world radar maybe. Under the male hormones radar, you need the 14th century armor suit, Angel Walker,' he thought smiling.

Casey was watching him carefully, trying to read Chuck's mind. Hmmm, Bartowsky, I know where this is going, you horny Intersect.."

General Beckman pressed the button to disconnect Chuck and Casey before asking Walker the question that was on her mind all day.

"Agent Walker, do I need to know what's the reason you are in Washington? As you know I run operation Bartowski, and since you are part of the team I need to know everything with regards to this operation and the team members. Everything they are up to.'

'Nice try,' Sarah thought. 'I'm sorry, general, but I'm not at liberty to say anything. However, the nature of the matter at hand is such that sooner or later you will be read into it. I can't imagine …'

'I thought so, agent Walker, I thought so.', the general interrupted. 'Since you are here in Washington, we should have dinner before you go. Talk about our project. What you really think of Casey and the Asset. How to improve things.'

'I'll be honored, general' , Sarah replied.

' How about tonight, at the Carlton, here, at the Pentagon?', asked Beckman.

xxx

Chuck and Casey were still sitting in the living room. It was so awkward.

Both had resigned from the Buy More last week. Chuck took the plunge with one thought only. Once the Intersect was out of his head, he was hoping that he and Sarah will get together for real. Think of their future together. Especially after what happened in that dingy hotel near the Fulcrum base. He knew he was smiling at the thought, but he couldn't help it. Not only did Sarah respond to his intimate advances but she looked so happy, so relaxed. A very different Sarah. Damn condom! And later, Sarah refused to go with Bryce on the new mission. She wanted her new life to be with him, Chuck. They were just about to make the next, most important step in their lives!

Chuck sighed. But then everything turned upside down. Again. He had to upload another Intersect in his head. On top of that, he saw Bryce die, and now, Sarah was urgently called back to Washington. He didn't have any idea why. He was stuck to the spy world once more, the very world that denied him anything remotely close to happiness.

What was he gonna do? How does his spy status change now? He had to wait for Sarah and Beckman for clues about his future. A future he had no control of. Again. What a loser. Well, maybe I should finally accept it. Charles Bartowski is a loser. Where's the news?

Casey was watching him carefully, trying to read the Intersect's mind. He saw him smile (that was when Chuck remembered about Sarah and him in the Barstow hotel) and then how his mood went down the drain in less than a minute.

Casey felt confident enough to attack.

"What is it Bartowski? Imaginary Kama Sutra with Agent Walker? Again? What did she say after? 'Chuck,' Casey was now imitating Sarah in one of her motherly caring modes, 'was it as good for you as it was for me?'

'Shut up, Casey, leave me …' Chuck tried.

But Casey wouldn't stop. He was like obsessed by an evil spirit, more bitter than ever. He was stuck with Chuck again, if they don't fire him, that is, all his frustrations piling up, looking for an exit route. As usual, Chuck was the perfect target for his sarcasm. But this time it was different. Casey was so vicious.

'Oh yeah, how could I forgot. You didn't have a condom. How pathetic …'

'Casey, shut up!', Chuck was yelling at Casey now, 'I'm not in the mood for your …."

Aaah, Chuck the lady-man Bartowski. Your lady feelings aside, how would your tender soul …'

Chuck wasn't just angry at Casey now. Rage, an avalanche of pure rage was taking over his head. He was now standing up, eyes getting unfocused. Not able to keep balance, staggering, his head was making him nauseous again. It was like flashing but not exactly. There was so much rage. It was the other type of "flashing".

Casey had stopped talking 10 seconds ago. He knew Chuck was flashing and was wondering what he had said that triggered the flash. What was the code phrase this time? Would they have a new mission now?

Not for a moment did it occur to him that it wasn't the ordinary, informational flash.

Casey realized that only a few seconds too late. "Chuck me .." was the last thing he was able to mutter out.

Chuck had already taken his fighter position, hands up, close to his body, torso slightly tilted, the left leg slightly ahead. Chuck's body suddenly rotated around his left leg, torso going slightly down, right leg going up, with all the torque force moving right at Casey's jaw.

A classic karate kick. The most powerful of all.

Most people would fall unconscious after such a blow in the head but not Casey. He was down on the couch, on his left side, trying to recover, slowly getting up. His mind was still too unfocused, however.

He was finally up. But Chuck was there waiting for him, standing at 90 degrees, fighter pose, with his hands up, but this time his right hand was clenched in a fist. He was ready for the famous short, under 90 degrees punch in the diaphragm.

Iaaaaaaaiii - i aaaaaaaaaa!

Now Casey was down on the couch again, struggling to breathe, all the air out of his diaphragm. Chuck, or whatever creature was against him now, was watching him with deadly resolve, breathing heavily. Another kick in the jaw send Casey to the kingdom of the sleeping angels for the next 5 hours.

Chuck was slowly getting his focus back now, realizing what happened.

'Oh God, what have I done? What have I done?'

He checked Casey's pulse. 'Oh God, thank you, thank you, thank you.'

No need to call for a doctor. Casey was breathing just fine.

Chuck realized it was better for him to get out of Casey's apartment before it was too late and rushed out.

Xxx

Back in his room Chuck was trying to process what had just happened. What triggered the kung fu mode? Can he control it? Was it connected to Sarah again? The first activation of the fighter mode happened when the enemy agent raised his gun against Sarah. Now Casey was zinging him and Sarah, something he was so sensitive about.

Did Casey intentionally do that? Just to experiment what triggers his fighter flashes?


	3. Chapter 3

Chuck Versus Agent Insanity

Chapter III

A Very Troubled Protector

Special Agent Sarah Walker was walking down the corridor of a CIA underground facility located several hundred yards away from the main HQ building at Langley. It was especially equipped against any form of electronic espionage, no electrons allowed out, as they joked there. The Vegas Bubble. "What happens in the bubble, stays in the bubble."

Several layers of special material isolated the rooms for secret deliberations on the government's black projects. Black operations involved only those who _indeed_ needed to know. If the Secretary of Defense, the CIA Director, the DNI didn't need to know, he or she simply wouldn't.

It was at the president's wishes that his Chief of Staff would contact the right people to set up such a black op. This time it was about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Or rather Israel's ambition to undo Iran's nuclear ones.

The newly elected Israeli prime minister had just informed the US president that sooner, rather than later Israel was going to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, starting with the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

"The threat is existential and we simply cannot live with that, case closed', the Israeli PM had said.

All the US President could do was to win some time and try figure out another less risky and controversial solution to the issue.

That's how a very small group of CIA, MI6 and German BND operatives were assigned to a special task force. They were supposed to sabotage the Natanz facility or find whatever way to stall Iran's progress by 5 to 10 years. So that the diplomats and the politicians could find a way for a permanent, peaceful solution later on.

Sarah didn't have her mobile with her now. It was against the rules. She knew that Chuck would be trying to call but this was the least of her problems at the moment.

She placed her face in front of the biometric security device. It scanned her left eye. No green light yet.

Then she moved to the left, so the electronic scanner repeated the procedure on her right eye. Another sensor had already sent molecular data to a computer analyzing whether the eyes were still alive. An operator was watching through a hidden camera to make sure that the subject checked wasn't disabled and held by others just to pass security.

This black op's head was taking no chances.

Sarah saw the green light coming from the device. The door was opening now for her. She sighed. Damn. She wished she had failed that check. For a third time today.

She was chosen to take part in this operation for two reasons. Her close contacts with Mossad agents were to be used to check if the Israelis were keeping their part of the deal. But that was the microscopic one. The big reason was elsewhere and that's what was giving her the headache. Chuck.

The black op chief, a guy who called himself Agent 20, was adamant. Although a lot of the information locked in Chuck's head was available on the computer systems of various agencies, they couldn't be sure that they had all of it. What if it was Chuck's head only that contained the name and dossier of a Iranian student of 25 years ago, that should be now their key target with regards to the Natanz?

And Chuck, with his flashes was able to retrieve the info on site, at the moment. So, if he hanged around somewhere in Tehran or Natanz, undercover, he could identify the right man for their so delicate needs.

'How could you do that with a computer database, stored somewhere in the US?' Agent 20 had asked Sarah.

The human intersect was indispensable for such a mission.

Sarah couldn't think of anything to counter Agent 20 on this. In fact, she knew better than anybody else how spot on Agent 20 actually was. She saw Chuck in action, in real-life operations and knew his real value. It was hers and Casey's mission reports that obviously had sealed Chuck's fate.

She so didn't like this whole Iranian thing.

Now, that the Asset had additional karate skills, he would have better chances to survive, Agent 20 maintained. And there was nothing for Sarah to say. She could make the opposite point, but she wouldn't be that sure about it herself. Agent 20 had been beating her every time they had an argument.

Worse, she knew he was right. And even worse, she realized that she was making her arguments because the Intersect happened to be a person who she developed intimate feelings for, and she was just trying to protect him. She had failed as an agent, again. Maybe it was time for her to quit?

Nah, they wouldn't let Chuck go anyway. Without her, he'd still need protection, he'd be heartbroken if she were out. No, it would be way, way worse. They had to somehow get through, survive this crazy Iranian thing and then think of some reasonable solution.

Reasonable and _satisfactory_ to each side, the government, Chuck and her.

"Satisfactory" sent her back to the Barstow hotel where "no satisfactory end" trademarked the whole event. They were just about to make love. She finally let her defenses down. For God's sakes. She couldn't believe she had done that finally. She had gotten so used to the emotional torture.

And then Chuck left to look for a condom. Why did she let him go? Was it that time of the month for her? She frowned, thinking. Maybe that's why she let her guard down. The human body has its own intricate molecular mechanisms that tell you when to do a certain thing and when not to or so she read somewhere. Did she want a child with Chuck? She couldn't think about this now.

Why did she let Chuck go look for a condom? She wasn't sure. Yeah, she was just too overwhelmed by what was going on of course. She didn't have the time to think it through. She just let him go look for protection and this might well be the most fatal mistake in her life.

What if she'd gotten pregnant then? How different would things be now? Tomorrow?

She had no time to think about all this now.

Sarah sighed again, put her mask on and walked into the bubble room.

There was a large conference table, made of special composite material. Of course. Everything here was some special composite or plastic, everything competing to absorb the audio waves that were about to come out. No electronics. No cables. No electricity. Lighting was provided by candles. The CIA knew better than any other organization how to gather signal intelligence and they weren't taking any chances.

It's like you are on a romantic date here, so where's the wine, Agent 20 used to joke about the candles.

Sarah liked his jokes as much as she hated his operation.

Sarah approached the table. "Good afternoon everybody". They nodded back to her.

"Take a seat Agent 4."

Even the numbers didn't matter here. They were randomly picked. Those people were crazy about secrecy. She was 4, the boss was 20. She knew that there were two other people with a higher rank than hers but she had no idea about their numbers. They were not supposed to know each other at this point. Only after a concrete plan was to be developed, would each of them be introduced only to those who they needed to know in order for the operation to be successful.

Who was on the British side. Barker?

All were wearing masks, all were sitting on chairs at places that weren't well lighted. Compartmentalization. The first, second and third law of the damned spy business.

Only agent 20 knew them all and which number corresponded to which operative. After all, it was his operation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have important business to do here. Let's not waste any more of our precious ...

**

Eleanor Fay Bartowski, now Mrs Devon Woodcomb, was screaming in her bed. She was in a hotel, in a luxurious resort, thousands of miles away from her brother. Some honeymoon. It was the same afternoon Chuck flashed his kung fu skills on and kicked Casey's butt.

Ellie was supposed to rest and sleep after all morning of sunbathing and swimming. But she had just had a terrible nightmare. Chuck was locked in a cage in the jungle. Held as a hostage. They were torturing him. He was bleeding from his ears. The doctor in her wondered about what could be behind such symptoms.

"What's the matter, babe? Please, wake up Ellie!" Devon was up, next to her, trying to figure out what was going on.

But she was already full awake.

'Nothing Devon, I was just having a nightmare."

Ellie, is it about Chuck again?', asked Awesome, chills crawling up his back. He just remembered about Chuck's double life. A spy. Casey and Sarah, just handlers and protectors.

'Hmmm,' Devon wondered.

'What about Chuck and Sarah then? Were they a real couple? "Joining the hip" as he used to say? Or she is just a protector, a cover girlfriend?'

Hmmm, now it started making sense, their weird relationship, that is. Not awesome. No hips together.' Now he knew. Devon frowned.

Ellie wanted to lie, but just couldn't. Devon was her husband now. They were about to build a family. Working hard on the next generation of Bartowskis. How could she start this with lies?

'Yes, it's about Chuck, I'm so sorry, Dev. He was bleeding. I don't know why I worry so much. You know I'm not superstitious. Not at all. But I read somewhere that when a close relative, your blood, is suffering or dying somewhere, even far, far away, you feel it somehow. Science hasn't discovered everything yet, you know that as well as I do. We are doctors remember? We still can't explain gravity, you know, what kind of waves or particles are causing it, so ....' Ellie was totally unable to stop.

'Babe, babe, calm down, I know. I believe you. You know what. I'll call the operator, put me through to Chuck. Let me talk to him, ok?'

"Please, Devon, do that for me.", Ellie was holding her hands pressed on her belly.

'What was that?', she wondered. 'An instinctive reaction?' Was she already pregnant? She and Devon had spared no effort in that direction recently.

Devon was strolling back and forth in the next room, talking to somebody.

'Sorry, bro, just Ellie and I wanted to hear from you. Then, he walked into the bathroom, so Ellie couldn't hear. "Hey, everything ok there with you and the guys? Awesome. Rooting for you here, Chuck. Are you kicking some badass asses there, bro? This is soooo awesome!

Xxx

Agent 20 went on:

'As you well know, the United States doesn't have an embassy or any sort of consulates in Iran, no diplomatic relations whatsoever. The Swiss embassy is out of question as well, as they officially represent us vis-a-v-s Iran. We'll have to rely on some of our other European allies as a base of this op, those who actually have healthy and productive business relations with the Mullahs. This is actually why the president invested so much effort in patching up our relations with the NATO allies …'

Sarah really struggled to concentrate on what Agent 20 was saying.

So much worries, so much on her shoulders. She had just decided to open up to Chuck and start building her new life with him. And now all this big, big trouble. She wasn't even convinced this crazy Iranian project would be very successful. If at all. _They, both Chuck and she may well end up in Iranian jail or die without achieving their mission._

"…so we have determined that the best embassies to position part of our team would be our invaluable allies from the cold war times, Germany and …"

Sarah was still thinking about Chuck. She already knew his part of the mission. How on earth would they be able to place him at the Tehran State university, from what country? Did Chuck know another language fluently, so he could pretend to be an Austrian, Italian? No.

His family name was Bartowski. Wasn't that a Polish name? Couldn't he have picked up some Polish from his grandparents?

She made a mental note to check out his origin.

She had a close friend, a Polish girl at high school. At one of the many high schools actually. It was in Boston. She stayed there for 10 months or so before she and her father had to run. Again. Yvonne something. Family name was totally unpronounceable. Strzhe .... She had never been able to pronounce the crazy name.

Her friend was an exchange student from Australia. Funny accent, Australian. They made great friends, however.

She could ask her if Bartowski was Polish. She still had her AOL email.

She remembered Yvonne. They were close friends, feeling like sisters sometimes. Sarah frowned again. Yvonne was beautiful, like a supermodel. Sarah was such a nerd then. She hated high school so much.

Yvonne dreamed about becoming an actress or something.

"With this funny Australian accent?", Sarah wondered. "Only in Australia, dear, only in Australia'.

'She hadn't talked to her for ages. Interesting, what might she be doing now?' Sarah wondered.

'… we certainly can't use our Polish friends' embassy.' agent 20 went on. 'Poland has become a very good ally of the United States and agreed to deploy some missile defense components. Moreover, components of a system that is supposed to stop Iranian missiles, so ….'

So much for Chuck's Polish cover story.' Sarah thought. Was Agent 20 reading her thoughts? So weird. Can they do that now?

Agent 20 had been right again. Sarah just hadn't thought about the politics. With all her pressures, personal worries, LA mission, she hadn't been able to adequately process the information a good agent should have. Always must.

Sarah Walker, you've just failed again.

Xxx


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV

Agent Insanity

Chuck was still lying in his bedroom, having no idea what to do next. Where was his father? Does he spend the night here or back at the hotel, with this crazy Carina girl?

And why wasn't Sarah answering? He decided to go back to the hotel. Here he was alone. And the eventuality of meeting Casey once he wakes up, not so awesome, bro.

He smiled at his imitating of Devon. Good that they were OK there. Or were they? He wasn't sure. Why did Devon and Ellie call him instead of enjoying their honeymoon?

Chuck took his laptop, got into Ellie's car and drove to his new home with Carina, his new angel protector… .

But first he checked to see of Casey was OK. His pulse was 71.

Xxx

Carina was awake in her bed. Or rather her and Chuck's bed. She smiled at the thought. Everything was going according to plan.

Somebody knocked on the door.

'Carina, it's Chuck, can I come in?'

'Sure, Chuck, no problem, I'm decent here', she lied.

Chuck opened and stepped in.

'Of course, you're not decent, why should you be?' he pursed his lips while watching her.

Carina laughed out loud. 'Come on, Chuck. You'll never become a real spy if you believe everything somebody chooses to tell you. I'm just trying to teach you a lesson.'

'And by the way you are not seeing anything, are you?'

DEA's undercover agent Carina Falcone wasn't exactly the typical US secret agent you read about or watch on TV. Or even as they were in real life.

There were two major reasons for this. First, at least half of the psychiatrists around the world would diagnose her as insane, the other half, just border-crazy, probably because of the reasons for her pretty mature multiple personality disorder.

Second, she was the best undercover agent ever, with the second being a function of the first.

_Then how did she get to become a government agent without her insanity being detected?_

Her real name according to the birth certificate was Alessandra (Sandra) Falcone, _not Carina_. Carina was her little sister. The real Carina died when she was only 5, together with her Mom and Dad in a car crash. They were driving back after visiting Alessandra, then 9 years old. The elder sister had asthma and was staying at a sanatorium.

Her stay there had been helping her lungs a lot but broke her heart. Forever. She would never be able to see her mom, dad and little sister, ever. And they were there with her just 50 minutes ago.

Only 90 minutes after the crash, US Federal agents took Sandra away from the sanatorium and moved her to a safe house. Yes, they were all under the witness protection program.

Her granddad was member of one of the mafia families there in New York in the 40s and early 50s. Middle level, nothing that special. But once all these gangster wars had gathered forced, it became just too much for Carlo, Sandra's grandfather. He got really disgusted of the killings, the cruelty, everything.

The FBI smelled that just in time and managed to recruit him. Not that it was easy. He was so worried about his wife and only kid. It took the FBI some extra effort to convince Carlo that everybody would be protected. A signed letter from the then deputy-director.

Later on, he had to testify in one of those mafia trials. While not a star witness exactly, he had witnessed actual killings and what some of the killers were saying. How their bosses ordered them, everything. He was sincere, his testimony was compelling and the jury believed him.

So Carlo made the top of the mafia hit list. While hiding, he died of a heart attack several years later. Nobody could be sure whether it was natural or somehow sponsored by the long hand of some _cappo_. The FBI assumed that the mafia would prefer another method of killing him just to set example, and demonstrate that traitors get what traitors deserve. Thus, they decided that it was just a heart attack. And so it was.

But the car accident with his son and his family was another matter. Once the mafia learned Carlo was dead, they have decided that his son may decide they were responsible and go after them. So they decided to preempt. Stay on the safe side.

Gradually, Sandra learned more and more about it. First from her lawyer while she was still a teenager. Then, becoming a government agent, she got access to a lot of databases.

Now, she was after the killers of her family, especially her 5 year old sister. She was the one deprived of everything. Sandra didn't even know how Carina would turn out to be. What kind of life she would want, what kind of men she would like. Everything about life was taken away from Carina at the age of 5. Sandra's mom and dad lived up to their 30s. They had the chance of learning the joy of love, family, children… Even if under the limitations of the witness protection program.

The real Carina never knew any of that. Never had the chance. Sandra's blood boiled up every time she thought of it. The rage wave would engulf her every time she remembered her little sister. **And it happened every damn day.** By the time she was 18, she had lived through more rage than the average American would experience over the course of his or her entire life. Sandra often felt she was losing her mind. She tried many things to prevent that.

Yoga seemed to be helping a tiny bit, especially breathing. But nowhere near enough. If Sandra was watching a movie, she would be wondering if her poor little sister would like it. She was talking to her in her mind.

If Sandra had come across a boy she liked, she would be soon asking herself if Carina would like him. If Sandra was making out with the boy, she would soon get furious at the thought that her little sister would never feel this. She would explode with anger and the boy would leave terrified. Crazy chick. The boy would then share with his friends about his experience with this really beautiful but so crazy girl.

Sandra knew her obsession was driving her crazy but she couldn't help it. She wondered how soon she would end up in some asylum. She had decided that when this moment comes, she would rather end her life than stay locked with crazy people for the rest of her life.

It was because of her self-observing, self-analyzing mode that she managed to avoid clinical insanity.

The rational part of her brain was constantly observing her almost permanent emotional distress.

And then, when Sandra was in her last year at high school, everything changed.

An FBI agent asked her one day, whether she would be interested in joining any of the FBI departments.

It was an ingenious idea. The FBI had to keep its side of the bargain and protect her after graduation. So what's the best way? Become one of us. Thus, you get training, salary, health insurance, retirement package, secret identity, everything to increase your chances of survival, considering her circumstances.

They envisaged her as an analyst somewhere, a desk job, so there would be no risk for her life, that field agents were exposed to.

The officer who came up with this solution got promoted for this brilliant plan.

'We should use this approach more often,' said the deputy director of the FBI waving a pen. Then he signed her papers.

When Sandra heard the offer, she immediately knew that this was a breakthrough for her and that she would accept it.

All she said however was that she needs to think about it and asked for a week. She was in no mood for rush decisions no matter what. At age of 18, she wasn't the average US teenager, going for emotional, rushed decisions. She had survived clinical insanity beating all the odds, thanks to staying rational.

After careful consideration, she accepted and 4 months later turned up at Quantico, Va.

Of all kinds of agents, DEA undercover is the most dangerous one. Most CIA agent runners are stationed at embassies around the world and are protected by diplomatic immunity. Those few, who aren't, usually operate in friendly countries such as Austria or Switzerland. They enter danger zones only for short periods of time. CIA agents usually work against foreign governments. Even if they get caught, the US government would try to exchange them or apply some leverage here and there for their release. Governments are usually reasonable and the US government was able to help most of the time.

Not that their missions aren't dangerous. But they are nowhere near what an undercover agent has to live through in, say, Colombia, trying to infiltrate a drug cartel. You deal with irrational animals there. Those brutes would chop your head off not because you failed your mission and your cover is blown but just for the sake of the outrage itself.

A drug dealer may decide to kill you just because they want your cut, even if they already made a lot of money from you and you are promising for the future. Many of them were just irrational brutes. Thus, you are in a life or death situation 100% of the time.

How did Sandra end up in this most dangerous type of spy craft when the FBI had offered her some of the safest desks of the Hoover building?

Sandra made this choice herself, signing a waver, relieving the FBI of their duty to protect her. She couldn't survive a week behind the desk, probably even a day. The thought of her murdered sister would start coming back minute after minute, the rage, the boiling blood. She would end up with the FBI shrink in less than a week. The only way for her to counter her mental problem was danger, adrenaline, lots of it. Life and death situations. That was her escape mechanism.

Only under tremendous pressure was she able to find her mental balance, activating her cold-blooded rationality. In life or death situations she was always able to shoot the enemy right in the heart, or between the eyes. When practicing, at the shooting range, she was mediocre most of the time. Never able to concentrate properly.

This ability of hers, to be at her best under the greatest pressure made her the best agent.

She had another tremendous advantage, as well. She was very beautiful indeed, the rare type that most men craved for.

Her body did not have the perfect proportions of Sarah Walker. She was slimmer, almost bordering unhealthy. But that was the beauty of it. So were all these supermodels on the covers of all these stupid fashion magazines. A little unhealthy. That's why her marks, the people she wanted to seduce for some reason just couldn't pass on her.

How often do you get to sleep with one of those Vogue supermodels, a Claudia Schiffer or something? Much less than once in a lifetime, of course.

Sandra's DEA career served her long-term personal goals magnificently. Swimming in the ocean of drug deals she had found out what kind of money had been floating around.

She started to divert drug money from all these missions. Once, when she hacked the bank accounts of a drug dealing group, she diverted 5 million, and set up the boss she had seduced to have been trying to steal from the rest. They ended up shooting at each other.

In her mission report she wrote only about divering 1 mln, and 1 mln she sent to US Treasury. That was her biggest hit of course. She had three other scores, where she managed to acquire significant amounts, each over 1 mln.

She knew this is extremely risky so she tried to be very careful. 200 grand from here, 300k there. But she was accumulating wealth pretty fast.

When she had almost $20 mln. she invested in stock. The stockbroker she hired was the stockbroker she seduced.

Carina made sure he would never cheat on her. He was only "allowed" to add 10% a year.

Before she explained to him the 5 particularly painful ways she would kill him if he screwed up with her money she did something. She poisoned his coffee, and told him about it once he started feeling the symptoms. She even googled them for him. He was both vomiting and wetting himself while reading. Then she gave him the antidote.

'Relax, Johnny' she cheered him up, " I need you alive and well, investing my money. I just had to make sure you don't screw up with me. Invest wisely, get me 10% profit a year, anything you make above those 10% is yours, and you'll be alive and well. Is 10% reasonable for you?'

'Yes, Carina, yes, very reasonable, thank you,' Johnny would only say to that. "Crazy woman!"

'Oh, one last thing, Johnny, I have the tapes of our three encounters. They can end up in your wife's hands if you screw up with me. Just one more insurance policy, nothing to worry about.'

Before Carina approached Johnny, she had already checked 3 more things about him: he was really good at his job; he himself already had millions so he would reimburse her if he happened to invest some of her money badly; and he didn't have any relatives or connections within the intelligence community. So he wouldn't call tomorrow somebody in the FBI to prompt investigation on her extracurricular activities.

Most probably, she assumed, he already got himself involved into some insider trading, at least technically, so he wouldn't be interested in getting involved with the Feds.

She also arranged her first business meeting so that they met next to the Hoover building. Thus, he saw her come out of the FBI HQ. And then enter it again when they finished. He knew that she was doing some important government job already.

That's how good Sandra was, when she needed to be. Her money was very safe and growing steadily.

Once she finds the killers of her family ("program minimum", as she called it) she will be free to pursue a wider agenda. That's what she needed her money for.

But first she needed to find the killers. That's what she needed Chuck for.

XXX


	5. Chapter 5

Chuck Versus Agent Insanity

Chapter V

Trust Me, Dear

Chuck was still standing in front of Carina.

'Probably taken over by his thoughts.' She thought.

'Chuck, could you turn around, please, I need to get dressed.' She was still naked under the cover but her tone was different now. Serious. No flirting.

Chuck felt relieved. 'Sure.'

While still putting her clothes on Carina asked, 'Aren't you hungry, I'm starving you know. Let's go get some food.'

'Can't we order here?' Chuck was getting nervous again. He preferred to stay with her _and_ the NSA agents rather than somewhere out with Carina only.

'Don't worry Chuck', she said, reading his mind. 'The NSA team will be close to us. I'm only temporary assigned to you and they don't fully trust me. I guess. NSA people will always be around us.'

'You know, I'm a vegetarian and my stomach is very picky.' she went on, 'so I need to buy some products for me. I'll be cooking.' She smiled at him.

'And by the way, how do you know,' she continued, 'whether some Fulcrum operative hadn't penetrated this hotel and wouldn't put some poison in the food anyway?'

Chuck had to agree. He stayed silent most of the time because he was wondering where this new version of Carina came from. Strictly professional, as he told Beckman earlier. Incredible.

Carina was watching him. 'Still unconvinced, nerdy, nerdy, cutie boy?'

'Listen, Chuck. I know that last year I was behaving a little wild.'

'Yeah, a _little_,', Chuck interjected shaking his head.

Carina ignored the comment.

'But it was _my_ operation then, remember? It was in my prerogatives how to do it. This is now _your_ operation. You are the big Kahuna here.' She smiled at him again.

'It's only a temporary re-assignment for me.' Carina continued. 'I don't have the freedom here my bosses usually give me. I was read into how important you are. I'm not interested in exposing this operation to any risk whatsoever, OK? It's important for my career too.'

'Yes, Carina, I see.' he mumbled.

'Chuck, I'll have to protect you. Your safety is in my hands. _But if things get hot and you flash into your karate mode, then my life may be in your hands.'_

He was silent, not knowing what to say.

'I know that Agent Walker is an exceptional agent, probably the best" she allowed. 'But I can be very professional, too.'

'Yes Carina, I understand,' Chuck was still unsure whether to trust her, his tone betraying it.

Carina sensed his ambivalence. She continued:

"We really have to trust each other, Charles. I need to trust you 100%. And you can trust me 100%.'

Carina stopped here. She was now deadly serious, staring right into his eyes as if trying to hypnotize him she said. "You can trust me as much as you trust Sarah.'

There was silence.

'I'm calling an NSA team to escort us to some food stores now, OK?'

'Sure, Carina. Do what you need to do.' Chuck replied while trying to recover.

xxx

During the last exchange Carina had lied twice.

Sarah Walker was nowhere near what the best agent could possibly be any more. She was so goodhearted and much too decent for this kind of work. Indeed, she had been suppressing her human side for quite some time. That's how she advanced in her career. But now, that she had fallen for Chuck, she was failing as an agent way too often.

_Carina already knew almost everything about Chuck and Sarah._ Ever since the Afghani diamond operation, she had been monitoring team Bartowski.

_It was Carina who had approached Sarah with the diamond operation in the first place 18 months ago._

She had already heard from some colleagues that Sarah and Casey were stuck in LA for months and was dying to find out why.

_Two of the best agents of two major intelligence agencies. One of them working at a Buy More, the other selling junk food in a German folklore outfit. Isn't that funny? Can you believe that?'_

During the diamond op she learned that they were protecting Chuck, a college dropout working at the same electronics store as Casey. How does that sound? Any explanation?'

She new there was something really big there.

And then she had seen him flash. First on her, then on the security system, that had been protecting the diamond. She had provoked him there, saying:

'Sarah told me that you are supposed to have this really big brain ...'

And Chuck hadn't denied it. Actually Sarah hadn't told her any such thing. Carina was just eliciting intelligence on him.

When she checked Chuck's background, everything fitted perfectly. Surprise, surprise! He happened to be Bryce Larkin's best friend at college. It was a child's play for her to connect all the dots now.

Ever since the diamond op she knew he was of tremendous value to the government, and used most of her free time to monitor the team.

She had bugged both Chuck's and Casey's apartments. Only passive microphones, no emission.

The one inside Chuck's desktop PC was a real marvel. It looked like any other of these capacitors, stuck onto the motherboard. It would only receive, no emitting, so when Casey was sweeping Chuck's room for bugs, he wouldn't detect anything. It was just another part of Chuck's PC.

Even if Chuck would turn his PC off, the motherboard would still be under power. So it didn't need its own power source. That's how motherboards had been built ever since the late 90's, using ATX power units, as opposed to the AT units before that, one of her NSA friends had explained to her. She wasn't sure how ATX and AT units worked exactly, but sensed the value of this particular method.

The device emitted only when Carina would arrive at LA, approach Casa Bartowski and activate its emitting component remotely. Then she would download the recorded data and clear up the memory.

Of course, she chose only those moments when Casey and Chuck were at work. She didn't even need to enter Chuck's room and be seen by Casey's cameras.

It was practically impossible for Casey to find the bug. He needed to disassemble Chuck's PC, take out the motherboard and visually compare it to another one of the same model. Element by element.

Sometimes even two motherboards of the same model could be different, either because of different revisions or one could have been faulty, returned to the manufacturer and refurbished there.

This, of course was only one of the state of the art bugs she had planted both in the house, and outside, around the fountain. She was there herself and knew that most of the really important conversations were actually held outside, so Ellie and Devon couldn't hear.

Casey never suspected such a penetration of his security operation. Sweeping Chuck's room regularly with his standard equipment was enough for him.

Carina had heard more than enough over the last 18 months. Conversations between Sarah and Chuck about the Intersect, their tormented relationship, whatnot.

The one, when they were supposed to make love, for cover, when Chuck thought it would be for real, and had prepared for it, the candles, the music … And when Sarah came in, she told him that it is only another cover story. After that Chuck broke up their fake relationship and tried it with Lou.

Actually, she had heard so many episodes of their tragic, officially fake but secretly real relationship that she had gotten totally fed up with it.

Sometimes, thousands of miles away, while reviewing the recording, she would scream at them:

'Are you two insane? Tomorrow one of you two may get killed. Sarah may get re-assigned, one of you may get a really bad disease. You can't miss your moments like that!" Carina was so mad at them.

Ordinary people, in their daily lives, don't live with the thought that the worst may happen to them in, say, 24 hours. Housewives don't expect their husbands to die in car accidents while driving from work. Or that they themselves will develop some bad and incurable syndrome.

Carina, however, had a very different mindset. Life had already bitten her so viciously. The worst had happened to her when she was 9 so she knew first hand that it happens. Some of the really deadly diseases are not even that rare.

She hated Chuck and Sarah's dysfunctional, castrated relationship so much.

Other people had been rooting for Chuck and Sarah ending up together. Ellie, Devon, Morgan.

But nobody any near Carina. Nobody knew as much as she did. The rest knew only tiny bits, whereas she knew almost everything about them.

Then, after the joint operation with Bryce about the Intersect update, Sarah had let her guards down. During the operation, Bryce was able to detect that Sarah broke the rules for Chuck and then couldn't shoot at the enemy, hiding behind Chuck's back.

Bryce even told Chuck about Sarah's feeling for him. Near the fountain. Where Carina's devices were recording.

Then she heard how later, Chuck cut Sarah out, claiming he can't see their future together. It was in the air that Sarah was so ready to open up that night. She had just compromised herself as an agent, both before Bryce and Casey.

When Carina heard this missed opportunity she felt a wave of rage. She wanted to get the plane to LA, get those two together and smack them like little children. Idiots.

Her other lie, or half-lie was about the food.

While Carina was indeed picky, she wanted to go out with Chuck _so she could talk to him in private, away from the cameras and microphones in the suite_. The NSA people would be close to them but not close enough.

xxx

Half an hour later, thank you very much, LA traffic, Carina and Chuck were at a food store she chose randomly, both picking some food for the week ahead.

Carina looked around to make sure the agents were far enough so she could talk to him in private.

'Chuck, we probably have less than a minute, so just listen and don't interrupt. I know about you and Sarah loving each other, and I wish you well. Sarah and I are close, as you know she saved my life once, in Pakistan. We are competitive just the way sisters sometimes are.

Carina stopped. That was a mistake. She shouldn't have used the word "sister". She was getting emotional. Carina swallowed hard. She was afraid of continuing now. Her voice could be trembling.

What a stupid mistake. Sisters! She should have been able to control that. Damn.

Chuck realized something happened. He was stunned for a third time in less than an hour. 'Carina, … "

'No Chuck,' she said with some anger in her voice. She was reading his mind again, 'we are not sisters. It was a figure of speech. We were very close, we are competitive as girls often are, that's it. But there are three things you should know …'

Carina stopped. The NSA agents were getting too close.

'Hey, how about some meat? Let's go get some meat for you. I'm a vegetarian but I can cook some nice steak for you. How do you usually like your steak?"

They strolled away from the agents.

Once Carina judged they were safe, she went on, 'Listen, three things. First, we are on the same side. I repeat, we are on the same side.' She enunciated. 'Do you understand that?'

Chuck wasn't that sure but nodded.

'Good, second, I'm a very resourceful girl, more than you can imagine. Don't ask how. I can eventually help you and Sarah get together, you two love birds. I know about your feelings and _I know even about Barstow.'_

She was bluffing here. From her tapping operations she new that something dramatic happened there between Sarah and Chuck but wasn't sure what exactly. She had calculated it correctly that Chuck wouldn't confront her with a question like, "what happened in Barstow'? Even if he did, she would use the approaching agents as an excuse to interrupt the conversation.

She could sense that the name Barstow had the necessary effect on him. Good.

As she correctly expected Chuck was in no mood to raise this particular issue. He looked even more stunned.

'How did you kn…." He was mumbling something.

'And most importantly,' she interrupted, 'I may behave strangely in the incoming week or two, until Sarah comes back. 'Just play along. Will explain later.'

She turned and smiled at the incoming agents. Were they trying to overhear?

She was looking around and said to Chuck, "Have we forgotten anything? Anything sweet for desert? I heard that these days you are a great fan of all sorts of ice creams and yoghurt, right?'

Then they were driving back to the hotel. Chuck was trying to process all Carina had said.

That was a very different Carina. So bizarre. How did she know so much about him and Sarah?

Was she indeed on their side? She sounded so convincing anyway. Still, he decided to stay on the safe side and not trust her fully.

Something was still bugging him. Why did she stop after telling him she and Sarah were like sisters. Her voice was slightly trembling. She didn't sound that confident at the time.

He decided to ask her later.

After another half an hour, they were back at the hotel. Carina was watching carefully whether somebody was tailing them. The car arrived at the hotel and she and Chuck started taking the bags with all the food out of the car. Chuck decided to ask, while the agents were away:

"Carina, do you have a sister?"

'Ah, Chucky Chuck, you noticed. How sweet. I had a sister but she died when she was 5. I was nine then. Leukemia. That's why I got emotional. Sorry for that. If you had a sibling who died that young, you would know.' She sighed deeply with her head down. Carina was now in full control of herself. Sad expression on her face, as anybody would be in her place. No traces of rage.

'Oh, so sorry to hear that, I didn't know,' Chuck was stunned again. He didn't count any more.

'It's ok. I learned to live with that. Could you help me with these bags over there, please?'

XXX


	6. Chapter 6

Chuck Versus Agent Insanity

Chapter VI

Let's Watch A Movie - Part I

Carina was an excellent cook. That much he knew about her now.

After eating a light snack she asked him what he felt like doing tonight.

'I don't know, I have no plans, to tell you frankly,' he frowned, thinking about what was obviously missing from this entire picture. Sarah. She still wasn't answering. At least he saw her with Beckman.

Carina suggested that they watch a movie and he didn't mind.

'What kind of movies would you like to watch, Agent Carmichael?' she smiled.

Chuck was still thinking about this new Carina. What kind of game was she playing?

'Why don't you pick something?' he replied, 'You are the mysterious one. Maybe that's how I'd learn something about you. Like what kind of movies you like. It tells you a lot about somebody ' He smiled back.

'No, No, Chuck, I'm not good at movies. Never had the time to watch many. You pick.', Carina insisted. Her eyes were half-closed now. She was staring at him.

He realized that she wanted him to play along so he suggested a few names. Science fiction.

Good, she wrote the titles on a piece of paper, all 5 movies, and then asked one of the agents to go and buy these from the nearest DVD store.

Chuck had proposed 3 movies. She added the other two. Two James Bond movies, with Roger Moore. He was her favorite Bond. She found the humor in Moore's movies most entertaining.

Once the agent had brought those, she would replace one of the Bond movies with a special one.

It was a film about the New York mafia. While it was just a movie, not a documentary, it was following historical events pretty strictly. One of those who started with a caption, informing the audience that it was based on actual events. One of the characters there, Vincenzo Mazone was who she hoped Chuck would flash on. _That was the man who was behind the murder of her family._

Her problem was that Vincenzo had cut his own deal with the government and was hiding somewhere. Same witness protection she had been with. Some irony.

She could find him in other ways of course. She still knew people within the witness protection system. She could seduce whoever had to be seduced, hack their system and get Vincenzo's location.

_But that way she would leave traces._ Once she snatches Vincenzo, the FBI would figure out who was after him because of her enquiries. It was next to impossible to do it without leaving traces. She didn't want to take that chance so early in the game. She was crazy, but not that crazy.

She might choose to kill the witness protection officer right before she gets Vincenzo, and thus cover her tracks but she couldn't do that.

It was witness protection people who did their best to protect her. After her parents and sister were killed, those people were her family. They took good care of her. They supported the idea that she be hired by the government. Carina would never hurt any of them, not in a million years.

If she had to leave traces while locating Vincenzo through the system, she would.

But first she should try to get to him via Chuck. It would be the perfect solution and she had worked so hard on this operation.

She had been praying a lot these days that her man was in Chuck's database.

As usual, her plan was very thorough.

First, they needed to watch another movie. She would tape the sounds in the living room. So would Casey's microphones.

Then, on another night it would be her turn to pick a movie. And they would be watching the mafia movie this time. By the time they start doing that she would hook Casey's audio monitoring system to the tape from the previous day. So Casey of whoever is listening, wouldn't hear Chuck flash. They wouldn't know what info she was after.

She would get Casey drunk before that, add a substance to his drink that will knock Casey's brain so badly, that he wouldn't remember what has happened. Even if he later noticed that there are two _identical_ audio tapes for two _different_ nights, she still had several options how to deal with that. Could be a computer glitch. _The content of the second day with the flashes would remain unknown anyway. And who would waste time reviewing 2 hours of some movie audio, with people eating popcorn in the background._

Carina smiled again. That's why she was stretching naked in her room. So Casey could watch her. She could always get to him using her sex magic. In case there were glitches in her almost perfect plan.

The NSA agent was now back with the movies.

"Thank you Marvin'.

She looked at the two DVDs she had chosen. She took the one with Roger Moore on the cover in her hands. _The Man With The Golden Gun_. It was her favorite Bond movie.

"Sorry Roger, you're my favorite, but we won't be watching you any time soon. It's strictly businessched."

She got up, all the DVDs in her hands and went to the kitchen. When she reached a spot where she knew she couldn't be seen by Casey's cameras she opened the case of a Bond movie and damaged the disk with a laser flashlight. She had already experimented and knew the method was effective. Then she replaced the other Bond movie with the mafia one and returned them to the living room.

There was a serious reason why she didn't order the mafia movie through the agents. Once Vincenzo was snatched and they start investigation, somehow the info that she ordered this mafia movie for her and Chuck may end up in the wrong ears of the investigators. If the investigation reaches her, they may talk to the NSA guard and then they could see what movie she had ordered. Another base covered well.

Only Chuck would know that they watched the mafia movie but she already knew how to deal with that later.

Tonight they would watch Chuck's movie. Tomorrow, it would be her turn.

She would insist on watching the James Bond movie. But it wouldn't work. Well, then, like it or not, they would have no choice but to see how life was around all those mafia folks.

She would be taping Chuck all the time so when and if he flashes, she would be recording it.

Please God. Let Chuck flash on Vincenzo, please!

Not that Carina was religious. She didn't know whether she was. _She never had the time to think about such issues._ Her granddad was Catholic, as most Italians. Her mom and dad were Catholics as well. They took her to churches of course but at the age of 9 her normal life was over. She wasn't exactly the forgiving type, so she wondered if she would qualify.

Xxx

Carina and Chuck were watching a movie later. One of Chuck's favorite science fiction things. She wasn't excited about his choice but followed it thoroughly. Paid attention to his comments. Tried to remember everything he said. He was revealing his thinking, his preferences. She was learning a lot. It may get useful later. Somehow.

After the movie Chuck felt sleepy. Carina was business-like, no flirting, no nakedness. Once Chuck went to bed she went out. To get some fresh air, she told the NSA people outside. 'Stay vigilant folks,' she said.

After making sure she wasn't followed and there was nobody around, she took out a mobile phone. It was not the one she used during the day. This one had a built-in secure chip, encrypting her voice using an algorithm nobody had yet heard about. It was made for her only by a NSA nerd she seduced and made so happy. Several times.

Actually, she had seduced several NSA geeks, each providing her with priceless devices, software, hacking and signal intelligence knowledge. She made all of them very, very happy men.

Carina had let them find out that she was also a US government agent so they weren't committing treason. She needed this knowledge and devices to survive during her missions on behave of the same US government they worked for, she told them.

"Dave, dear, do you want me to die there in the jungle, because I was unable to securely encrypt my messages, or fail when hacking what I need to hack?' she would ask her hesitating NSA geek lover, while still lying in his bed.

No, No, No, Dave wanted her alive and doing all these magnificent things here under his sheets. So the nerd would get up and sit down on the computer and start writing a new code only for her.

Carina dialed a number. Tens of thousands of miles away, in the capital of a certain Asian country, a man picked a mobile handset with identical secure chip and answered it.

'Hello, shall we now proceed, Miss?'

'Not yet, maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, at the latest', Carina replied. 'I just wanted to make sure you are ready with everything you need. Right? Are you ready?'

'Of course, Miss. That's what I do for a living.'

'Good. My next call will set it off. Over.' She hung up.

Carina removed the cover of the mobile as she was in the dark and removed the secure chip from the socket. She had already done this many times in the dark, practicing it. Then she inserted another, identically looking secure chip, which contained a different set of encryption algorithms.

She moved a little switch to the left to change the wave band and dialed another number.

Hi,' said Sarah Walker on the other side, talking on identical handset. 'Everything OK there?'

'Yeah, don't worry.' Carina replied. 'How are things in Washington?'

'Don't ask. When I get back I'll tell you as much as I'm allowed to, I promise.', Sarah responded dryly.

'How is he', Sarah continued, her heart pounding now. Carina could sense that.

'He's fine. Nothing to worry. We watched a movie, some science fiction stuff. He told me that you two had watched it so you must know what I'm talking about.'

'Yeah', Sarah remembered it only vaguely. She wasn't into science fiction.

'He went to bed and is sleeping now. I left him with the guards five minutes ago, don't worry. I'll be back there in 5,' Carina went on.

'Please be careful with him.' Sarah struggled for words to justify her concerns, 'Nobody knows how this new thing will affect his head.'

'I know. I'm very, very thorough,' Carina said firmly.

'Oh, one last thing.' Carina pretended to have just remembered it, 'Chuck was talking in his sleep last night. _Something about Barstow._ He was mentioning your name. I have to know what it is about. I checked it. There is a small motel next to this Fulcrum base you were at. What happened there, Sarah?"

Sarah was blushing like never before, not knowing what to say.

'Sarah?' Carina inquired as Sarah was not responding.

'Listen, it is very private. I really don't …"

"But I have to report it, it could be connected to the Intersect, he might have seen something in his dream and this could have caused a flash … I really have to be assured… ."

'No,' Sarah interrupted her. 'No need to report it, please. I'll tell you... We were on the lam, looking for his father. We rented a room for the night there. And in the morning we were still in bed, just about to make ….'

"Yeah, I get it,' Carina rushed to interject, 'so what happened?'

'Chuck decided to go look for protection.' A slightly relieved Sarah went on. 'The condom he usually had in his wallet was missing. So he went out to look for a vending machine or something. And then Casey snatched him. He had already tracked us down."

'I see. I'm very sorry for having to ask you about this, Sarah. I hope everything will soon be ok with both of you."

"It's ok," Sarah said very quietly. She started crying, silently.

"Everything will be ok, … sis, I promise.' Carina said.

Carina pressed the disconnect button. 1 minute and 41 seconds. That was really bad, bad, bad but it was a very important conversation. Damn!

She walked around thinking, then sat down on the grass. She was on some lawn, adjacent to the hotel.

Why did she call Sarah _sis_? What's with these slip-ups? Was she trying to fill her void with Sarah? Because she couldn't take care of her little sis, the real Carina?"

She started crying. She was trying to stop but she couldn't.

Thousands of miles away, back in her hotel room, Sarah Walker was lying in her bed. Unable to let her mind off Barstow, she couldn't control her tears, either.

xxx

Chuck tried but couldn't sleep. He got up, no Carina. He checked the entire suite. Nowhere. The NSA people were in the next room or suite. Two were outside, disguised as cleaners, he could see them through the spy hole.

Why wasn't Sarah answering, again? He went to the window and looked out.

At about 40 yards away, on the lawn in front of him, he saw a tall and slim female figure. Was that Carina? He half-closed his eyes. Yeah. Was she talking on the phone? He realized that she wouldn't be able to see him as the lights were off. So he stayed and watched. Then he saw her sit down on the grass. She looked so unhappy, with her head down, between her hands. What was going on with Carina?

Chuck decided to wait for her. He sat in the kitchen, with his laptop, wondering what game to play. He suddenly realized he didn't feel like playing.

Xxx

Carina recovered after about 15 minutes or so she thought. She had lost sense of time. She checked her watch and rushed back to the hotel, went into a restroom and washed her face. Thank god she wasn't wearing make-up. Crying with make-up is never, never a good thing.

She checked herself out in the mirror. Her eyes were a little red but Chuck must be sleeping. She walked down the hallway and carefully opened the door of their suite.

Chuck wasn't in bed. Where was he? She found him in the kitchen, in front of the laptop, with a can of beer.

Damn, she didn't have here one of those Visine eye drops to clear up the eyes.

'Can't sleep?' she inquired.

"You guessed right, super-duper agent Falcone', Chuck was in his usual bantering mode. 'How did you come up with this name? Falcone. I guess it means falcon? Something mysterious about it you want to share with me?' Now he looked at her and tried the Bartowski brow dance.

Carina laughed. She could see why Sarah would fall for Chuck. She had guessed that right a year ago, during their joint operation, stealing the Afghani diamond. She told Chuck then that Sarah would fall in love with him. She was the first of several people who told him about Sarah's feelings. She decided to remind him that little fact now.

"Chuck", she started.

'Agent Carmichael is all ears, shoot Falcon', Chuck sipped some beer, and cheered at her. 'The rest of the beer within the premises is all yours..', he added, looking at the fridge.

'Do you remember what I told you one year ago? About Sarah and you?'

Chuck hadn't expected this. He tried to signal her with his hands – are you out of your mind, Casey is listening.

'Don't worry Chuck, I'm gonna take care of that. Actually, I'll pay him a visit after I tuck you in bed.'

She repeated. 'I'll take care of him. Casey is still sleeping by the way. "

Chuck was stunned. "How on earth you know that?"

He bugged us, but I bugged his flat, remember? I heard everything, your kicking his ass.' She smiled.

'Don't worry.'

Chuck felt relieved. Now he could speak freely.

'Carina, there's something I need to ask you. I saw you on the lawn outside 10 minutes ago. Talking on the phone. I respect your privacy. But then you sat there and looked so unhappy. And now your eyes are red. Have you been crying? Is there …'

Carina tried to deny but Chuck was raising his voice: 'No, no, Carina, remember, you told me to trust you. I do now. But you have to trust me as well. So no more lies. Have you cried and why? Is there anything …'

There was no point for her to lie now. She would lose the little trust she had been able to gain so far.

'Shut up Chuck.' She had raised her voice. 'Yes, I cried. Everybody has personal problems, you know. You, Sarah, Casey. Don't you all?'

'I'm a woman, so I cry sometimes. I have my problems as do the rest 7 billion people on this planet. It's not easy for me, but I'm perfectly capable of dealing with it. OK? I can _handle_ it', she stressed on handle. 'It's OK.'

She sounded very convincing indeed.

Chuck felt relieved. He was thinking.

'Ok. But if there's something super-duper agent Carmichael can do, just call me, OK? Now with this new Intersect and kung fu mode, I might be able to help.' He was playful again. 'Here is my number in case you don't have it. He started writing his phone number on a napkin.'

"Yeahhh', Carina shook her head. 'No wonder Sarah is so hooked up.'

She nodded at him. 'Ok, I promise. If there is something you can do for me, I'll let you know immediately. We got a deal now, super-duper Carmichael?'

'Deal. Intersect, version 2 is at your services. Memorize my number, then burn the napkin. That's an order. As you know I'm now in charge of operation _Visine_. Red Eyes never again.'

Carina laughed.

"Sweet. But I'll get what I need without you knowing it, Chuck. It's in your head, I hope. It's better for both you and me this way. _You, with your childish morality just wouldn't understand._"

Instead, she said, 'I was talking to Sarah when I was out there 15 minutes ago. She says "hi"'.

'Really? Why isn't she picking the phone? I've been calling her all day.'

"I know. We talked via a very secure line. Sarah is involved in consultations about something super-secret. Even I don't know the details.' She sighed and went on.

'She is not allowed to talk on the phone while there. Besides, you heard from her while you were talking to Beckman, remember? I told you I'd had Casey bugged.'

'Yeah, right.' Chuck remembered. 'Did she tell you when she'd be coming back?' he asked.

'No, nobody knows. They are still deliberating something there. But it has something to do with you, as well, I mean the Intersect. That much I could guess. So we have to be very vigilant. Go get some sleep. Now I need to pay Casey a visit.'

Xxx

25 minutes later Carina was at Casey's front door. It wasn't locked.

Yeah, he was still there on the couch. She took out a bottle from her bag, poured something on a cloth and put it on Casey's face. She needed him sleeping a little longer.

Then she looked around. Ronald Reagan's statue. She was too young to remember him but from what she studied at school and read later, she was open-minded to his ways. Peace through strength, toughness, strong will. She knew he was right.

If you aren't strong and don't project your strength, some shark will eat you alive before you know it.

She looked back at Casey. Poor John, having money worries, she thought. Maybe she should send him a 500k check after all is over. He obviously liked her. Not once but twice she had seduced and then left him hand-cuffed in her bed.

'Where is you private hiding place, Casey?'

It took her 20 min to find it and pick the lock of the safe. She scanned its content and took several items, including the CD with the video feed. On it, Casey had written with a marker, "Carina".

Carina smiled. She was naked especially for him there in this feed. He obviously liked her. Maybe they should get together sometime, when the dust finally settles.

After she installed some more bugs in Casey's apartment, her job was done. She drove back to the hotel.

Chuck woke up when she entered the room.

'Hey, Carina, maybe I should move to the couch?'

'No Chuck, don't worry.' She lied down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

'Let's play another game for a change. Obviously, we aren't going to end up lovers. Imagine I'm your sister and you are my brother. And we take care of each other. Deal?' this time Carina was in full control of herself.

Chuck was thinking.

'Yeah, that will work, that will work. Eventually. Welcome to the family, Carina! I think Ellie will like her new sister. Provided you are in one of those less wild-ish modes. Could you stay longer in one of those less wild-ish modes? At least when Ellie's around?

Carina was laughing really loud now.

No, she couldn't. Sorry, Chuck.

Xxx


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VII

Let's Watch A Movie - Part II

The next day was uneventful for both Carina and Chuck. They played some computer games, ate the food she cooked. She was able to get him promise her that they'd watch her favorite movie in the evening. It was her turn after all.

Right before they sat on the couch to watch, Carina disabled all of Casey's microphones except for one. He attached a device to it with the two and a half hours recorded the previous day.

They were about to watch now. Chuck was looking at the two DVDs she had picked. 'Which one you pick?'

'Bond, of course. Remember, I'm a spy. We are spies now. It's funny by the way. Haven't you seen it?'

He hadn't.

'And why did you pick the mafia movie, anyway?' Chuck asked casually.

She was ready for the question, of course. She had always covered her bases. Especially now. For her it was SHOWTIME.

"Well. I'm an Italian American remember? It's part of our history, how we got here, how we established our presence. It's not something I am proud of, but it's a fact of life. As a little girl I read a lot about the Mafia as it's part of our history. And I picked it because you asked about me, something about my past, remember?"

It was a brilliant answer.

'Well, then maybe we should watch the mafia movie, you got me so intrigued, sis.' Chuck was playful again.

'Nah,' she waved her hand. 'I'm not in the mood. I'd prefer something light and funny for the night. Put James Bond on, OK?' 'We're gonna watch the other movie some other time anyway.' She felt so happy now. He called her sis, and she was in full control of herself. ' She exhaled silently.

Chuck was already in front of the DVD player. He inserted the disk and pressed the play button. Nothing happened. The screen was blank. He pressed 'play' again, then 'eject', then inserted it, 'play'. No luck. He tried again, to no avail.

'Ha,' Chuck said, 'I guess something's wrong with the disk. The player was working yesterday, remember?

'Yeah, it was. Right.', Carina agreed. 'Strange.'

'Maybe I should try another disk then.'

He inserted the disk with the mafia movie. It started.

'Well,' Chuck said, 'we have no choice it seems. Do we watch this one?'

'Yeah, why not', Carina casually replied. 'After all, we were going to see this one anyway, right?' 'I know I'm going to be embarrassed for my fellow Italian American Mafiosi, but I'll live, I think' she allowed.

She stood up. 'Chuck, do you want another coke?'

Yes, he did. So Carina went to the kitchen, opened two cokes and put some drops in the one she would give to Chuck.

She wanted him to be only lightly sedated while watching so he wouldn't get too excited while flashing.

Xxx

During the entire movie Chuck flashed 13 times. There were 13 people with government files that happened to be part of the Intersect. Number 8 was her man, Vincenzo. Chuck had uttered his full name, positions in the mafia hierarchy, the fact that he was under witness protection now, _and his current location._

Carina spent the entire time motionless. She was far away from Chuck, on the opposite end of the couch. Hand on the chin, she was watching without reacting to Chuck's flashes. She memorized all flashes, number 8 included.

After some of the flashes he would continue with a comment or two about what had just happened. After the first she said: Sure, those people must have FBI dossiers. We can watch or change the disk if you like?'

Chuck didn't mind watching.

Toward the end of the movie the slow tranquilizer she gave him was finally taking over.

She helped him lie down on the couch. Soon, he was sleeping and snoring. Carina smiled. Well, Sarah is a resourceful agent. She'll find a way to deal with this issue eventually.

She took out the memory card from her recording device and made several copies. All heavily encrypted.

Then she went out of the hotel, smiling while passing by the agent. Fresh air again.

Outside, she took out her secure mobile handset, returned the first chip into the socket and dialed the number of her Asian contact.

"Hello again, Miss."

"You may proceed now." She hung up and changed the secure chip again.

Then she dialed Sarah's number.

'Hi, how are you today?'

'Hi, I'm fine', Sarah, replied, 'everything OK there?'

'Yes, everything.' Carina hesitated. 'I wanted just to check on you. Oh, there is little problem, you know.'

'What', Sarah was visibly worried.

'Your Chuck is snoring on the couch here. Did you know that? You gotta find a way to deal with that, you know. Grrrrrr.' she exaggerated his sounds'

Sarah laughed out loud, relieved now. 'Yeah, I know. It's sort of soft and cute-ish, not that irritating kind of snoring you know. It won't be that bothering to me.'

'Yeah, yeah, no wonder pigs can fly. Over.' Carina hung up.

Both were now laughing at the expense of poor Chuck who was still snoring peacefully.

Carina went back to the suite. She decided to sleep. Now that she knew Vincenzo's whereabouts there was a lot of planning to do. She was going to make good use of the next weeks until Sarah was back, planning her next moves – how to snatch Vincenzo without being detected by the witness protection people, and how to extract from him the information she needed. Then she'd probably have to kill Vincenzo.

It was the least she could do for him.

While Chuck was snoring, Carina was smiling in her sleep.

Thousands of miles away, in Washington, DC, Sarah Walker was wondering in her bed how to safely inject Chuck in Tehran and then get him out of there. Or preferably, how to get him off this disturbingly dangerous mission.

Finally, thanks to a couple of pills, she managed to fall asleep. There was no smile on her face, however.


	8. Chapter 8

Many thanks to all who subscribed to the story and posted reviews. I don't use beta readers and English is not my native language. So, I'm relying on your magnanimity more than you can imagine.

A few words on what is ahead. 12 chapters total, so 5 are still ahead. While the story has a very definite finale with regards to a **certain issue**, it's also a part of a much wider plot and will have a sequel. All major elements of the latter are already mapped out.

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter VIII

Who's Better?

Finally Casey woke up. He had the most terrible headache in history. Even Ronald Reagan could see that from the shelf.

'What time, what day, what had happened?' He wondered, groaning. And then he remembered. Chuck had another of these kung-fu flashes.

'I'll kill him,' Casey growled, remembering how the nerd started kicking him.

Well, at least he knew how to turn Chuck into a karate machine now. It was night. He turned the lights on and looked around.

Had anybody been here? He wasn't sure but he could check.

He went into the bathroom and opened a cabinet. He took out a gadget that controlled all hidden cameras throughout his apartment. He reviewed the entire feed from the living room, the scene with Chuck, kicking and punching him.

'Good job, Bartowski,' Casey grunted. Fast forward. Here it was.

'Ah, Carina, long time no see!' Casey smirked.

She was looking around. Sedating him with something. How did she find his secret safe so fast?'

It was under the couch, dug into the floor. You have to move the couch, the carpet, the cover. Then deal with the lock of the safe. Did she have some kind of a device that detected metals typically used for manufacturing safes?

She must have taken the disk with the video feed.

Casey grunted again. Sorry Carina. He had the video file, heavily encoded, uploaded via secure vpn connection on one of those anonymous internet servers. He went to one of his computers, downloaded it and started the decryption process. In less than 5 minutes the entire feed was there again. He fast-forwarded to the stretching segment where Carina was naked in the bedroom. He captured several frames, and uploaded on his mobile. Then, he sent three of those to Carina's mobile.

'I hope you're sleeping now, Carina,' he snickered.

Carina's phone was beeping. She quickly reached it as she didn't want it to wake Chuck up. She saw the pictures Casey had just sent her and chuckled. Idiot.

They were often playing that kind of games, trying to outfox each other. Stay in shape. She turned on her back and started typing on the mobile's keyboard.

'Done with the hibernating, Sugar Bear?'

She knew that would hurt him. 'Sugar Bear' was how his tragic love Ilsa had used to call him.

It was not only Chuck who knew about Ilsa. Carina got access to his NSA file thanks to one of her NSA nerds.

She went on texting. "Heard from Chuck how he kicked your ass the other day. Maybe you're now watching this feed. Or maybe I have it myself and will upload it. Create a myspace account on certain NSA colonel. Showing him ass-kicked by a Buy More computer nerd and sleeping unconscious afterwards. Should make an Internet sensation on youtube."

She put the smiling face icon at the end of the message and sent it back to Casey.

'Hope Casey's head doesn't explode because of this,' she murmured and tried to sleep again.

But her mobile beeped up again. Another message from Casey.

'Ok, you're good. Will come to see you both tomorrow.' Carina read.

Nooo, that won't cut it, colonel,' she thought.

She sent back: 'Check your new myspace account tomorrow.'

The answer came back immediately: 'OK, you are better. Congrats. Sleep tight.'

Now Carina finally felt content. She replied: 'See? You could say it. Was it so hard to tell the truth for a change? Don't send more. Sleeping. If you send one more, better check myspace tomorrow. Over.'

She fell asleep.

Casey grunted at the last. Would she dare?

If she posted the feed she would expose both the Intersect and a highly regarded NSA agent. It would be professional suicide. With every other agent, Casey would be 100% confident that nothing would happen after such a crazy threat.

But Carina was so wild, so unpredictable. He didn't seriously believe she would do such a thing but he couldn't be 100% sure. Crazy woman.

Casey wondered how much he knew about her. Very little outside their joint ops, he realized. Her file said something about a couple of successful operations in Latin America and that was it. There was something mysterious about her. How did she get to replace Sarah as Intersect's guardian in the first place, anyway?' He had no idea.

Carina had carefully built her reputation as loose cannon. Gradually, step by step. Without crossing the red line.

Since she was the best at the DEA, her bosses were willing to forgive her escapades. Ah, they would say, waving a hand. That's our girl, a bit wild, that's her style. But she is the best and she always delivers. We just can't afford to let her go. Not now with all this going on.

Thus, her reputation gave her much more freedom of action than so many other secret agents had.

xxx

Don Friedman was sitting in his office. And cursing. As head of the Drug Enforcement Administration he thought he had some prerogatives. It turned out he was wrong. He couldn't believe it.

There was a very important operation ahead and Fionna McKinley would have been perfect for the team he was having in mind. But then, when he called her, she told him that she was involved in another inter-agency operation and couldn't be part of his plans.

'What?' Friedman couldn't believe his ears. 'Last time I checked you were still a DEA officer and I was the head of this ....!'

Oh!' Carina exclaimed, 'haven't they informed you yet? Sorry, boss. I'll call you back in 20 minutes.' And then she hung up on him.

Don's eyes were wide open, he was probably red with anger. In front of him, his secretary was still standing and staring at him. He rushed her out of the office without explanation.

He was walking there back and forth wondering whether he had to change his plans – the operation as he had devised it so far was centered around Fionna.

He checked his watch. Only 8 minutes have passed. He called her again. Nobody would pick her phone however. Incredible!

Several minutes later it occurred to him to tell somebody to locate her by tracking her mobile. He was just about to do that when he got a call. One of his direct lines.

It wasn't Fionna, however. It was the Attorney General, the big boss.

While they knew each other in college and were some sort of friends, each took his own path afterwards. Don in law enforcement, and his current boss changing private practice with government positions, depending on whether his party was in power.

'Hey Don, I need to talk to you. I have a 20 minute window in half hour. See you then.' On this the AG had hung up on him.

The DEA chief already suspected this had something to do with Fionna so he didn't bother to call her phone again.

Once he got there, the AG met him personally, let him in his private office and poured some whiskey for him.

'I'm really sorry that you haven't been informed about Agent McKinley. She was temporarily reassigned. For the time being you should plan your things without her,' the AG had started.

Friedman tried to protest and explain how important McKinley was for his op but he was interrupted. Very politely. Especially considering that the AG was powerful enough to kick him out without explanation.

'I'm sorry, Don.' The AG stopped here. He was looking for the right words. He needed to move away from the topic without divulging anything in his explanation. 'The only relief to your pain I can offer is buy you a dinner."

He then remembered that his wife liked Don. They had been together on private occasions only a few times since college.

Hey, why don't you come to my house, Pam's gonna love to see you both. OK?

And before Friedman was able to say anything, a personal assistant came in without knocking and informed her boss that the White House was calling urgently.

'Thank you, Meg, the AG now turned to Don and told him, "I'm sorry I have to take this call now, see you tonight.'

Don was out of the office before he could say anything. Once he was out, the AG turned to his secretary and said, "Great, Meg, that's why you're the best. You came in just in time.'

There was no White House call, of course. Later, another secretary would call the DEA chief and tell him that the AG had been summoned to the White House and their private event would have to be rescheduled.'

Don was cursing while going back to his office. Damn, now he had to rethink everything again. Hours and hours of deliberations how to penetrate this new group that was sending all these drug-loaded submarines along the West Coast had just gone down the drain.

He wondered what other agency Fionna could be involved with. The fact that the AG would turn up to cover for her without divulging any information... wow, he didn't even want to know what she was involved with now.' He grimaced and entered his office.

Fionna McKinley, of course, was the official name Carina was known under within the DEA. Everybody thought she was of Irish of British origin.

Ever since the FBI were to protect her family, they have had to hide their Italian origins.

FBI agents told them to immediately get rid of their Italian accent.

'How long do you think it will take the mafia to find you with this accent?' an FBI agent had asked them.

'If we place you in this small town, where the local people had never seen an Italian, you'll immediately attract attention. Oh, yeah, wise guys, wink,wink. Either hiding on their own or under witness protection. Then the word will spread and your lives won't be worth my grandmother's lipstick, he told them.

The FBI placed them in a safe house and gave them one week to learn and practice a new accent and totally, once and for all, get rid of the Italian one.

Carina had always been very careful with her true identity. She was inclined to present herself as 'Carina' or 'Sandra' only to people she considered true friends and only if she thought it was absolutely safe.

She had already spent many hours in hotels and stakeouts with Sarah, and had judged her to be really good person before she told her her 'true' name.

During one such stay in a motel in Indonesia, Sarah Walker had said to her, 'I wonder what your real name is, ... when I think of you, what should I call you in my mind?'

Carina had thought for a while before she answered. She decided to be both honest and play it safe:

'Sandra, think of me as Sandra, OK?' she said with an impish grin.

Ok, Sarah replied, I believe you and will think of you as Sandra.' ("Yeah, if you're are "Sandra" then I'm La Gioconda")

Thus, while Sarah believed her real name was different, in her thoughts she had always thought of her as "Sandra", which was indeed her real name.

That's how good Carina was at manipulating people, whether truly good, as Sarah or those who she had to deal against out there in the spy jungle.

xxx


	9. Chapter 9

Ever since the beginning of this story some of the readers, desperately rooting for the Chuck and Sarah thing, have been unhappy about Sarah being taken away from Chuck, and this manipulative and insane Carina injected in her place there in LA.

Well, as I hinted in my profile, the realities of the intelligence world don't revolve around our favorite or less favorite characters. They just have their own logic.

Now, however, Sarah will have a day off so she could eventually get back to LA.

Will Chuck and Sarah be able to finish what they started at Barstow provided: how depressed and worried sick Sarah is; how difficult she and Chuck have been at overcoming their sexual barrier; how little interest Casey and the government have in their romantic well-being, and how crazy and unpredictable Carina is.

While Carina might be rooting for them, she has at least two hidden agendas, and one secret official government operation, apart from her official job to protect Chuck. How will her multiple personality disorder play out?

As I hate cliffhangers, I'm uploading all the remaining chapters at once.

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter IX

Home, Sweet Home

Ellie was on the beach, sunbathing. Devon, somewhere in the water, swimming, chasing dolphins, who knew.

'Be careful while in the ocean Devon', Ellie warned. 'You may bump into a lurking shark there. Might bite you somewhere. Then no more baby-making for you'. Black humor was so untypical for her before. But her nightmares were affecting her psyche now.

'Not awesome, babe, so not awesome,' Devon replied. 'But point well-taken. Don't worry. I'll bite her first." He winked at her, gave the thumbs up and disappeared in the water.

Ellie was trying to forget her nightmares. Eyes half-closed, she was scanning the beach strip. A short male figure was approaching her now. Weirdly familiar, she thought. Was that ….

Yes, it was. Morgan. That was absolutely incredible.

'Morgan, is there a safe place from you, anywhere on this planet?' she asked when he reached her.

'Hi Ellie, I thought you'd been missing me. Just arrived here with Anna. Will be setting up my new business here. Remember? Benihana chef?"

'How did you find us here Morgan?' Ellie was still anxious to find out.

'Relax, Madam Woodcomb. Captain Awesome called once we landed here. He invited us. He hoped we'd help cheer you up a bit. He said you were worrying about Chuck all too much.'

"Yeah, Morgan that's true,' Ellie had to admit.

She and Morgan had always bonded on that. She wondered whether, once back home, she would be missing him. She could now see Anna coming toward them. Good that there is somebody to keep that little bearded nerd in check.

Xxx

Sarah Walker had no idea how much more she would be able to stay in Washington without going crazy.

Her dinner with General Beckman went pretty well, no screw-ups. Dyane was trying to elicit anything about the black op Walker was part of. She obviously felt humiliated for being kept in the cold.

But Sarah wouldn't budge. She couldn't.

Beckman tried a different approach.

'Sarah', she went on first names, 'I have reviewed a lot of those Burbank tapes. I saw you and Chuck being … err, emotional. I have been young as well, you know. You need to understand that I have to stick to certain …'

'Rules, yeah, general, I know,' Sarah interrupted. 'I'm in the same position."

'Let me finish, Sarah, please. I worry about Chuck as well. I wish you both well, once this is over. I can see that you two caring about each other can have its advantages. That's why I allowed you back and sent Agent Forrest away. You just need to keep it discrete.'

Excellent ploy. Beckman knew something was going on between those two, they were most probably secretly sleeping together, so what she generously allowed was actually happening anyway. At least in her head.

Sarah blushed, she didn't know what to say.

Beckman saw that and told herself, 'I knew it, I knew it.'

The DNI head tried again and again to learn something about the operation but this conversation wasn't going anywhere. Sarah didn't reveal anything. That was interesting on its own, Beckman thought. _It must be really big_.

Finally, Beckman gave up. She sighed, looked at her watch, smiled at Sarah, and said. 'I have to go now. I have a meeting with Hillary a bit later.'

xxx

It was Saturday, about 10 pm. Sarah wondered what to do for the rest of the evening. She wanted to hear from Chuck and Carina but this super-encrypted mobile device Carina had given her was troubling in more than one way.

Even if the NSA wouldn't be able to decipher it in the next 50 years as she said, somebody was picking up the signal and wondering about it. Trying to track it. Yeah, that would be the NSA at least. No doubt about that. Probably that's why Carina kept their conversations short.'

She decided to stop using this mobile. She took off the battery and put all parts in a metal box so that no waves could fly away of it. At least for the time being.

Soon Carina found out that she couldn't track Sarah's whereabouts anymore with the built-in GPS chip inside the handset.

'Eh, Sarah, Sarah, you shouldn't have. I've taken care of that. Nobody would track us.'

xxx

On next morning, Sarah realized that she simply had to fly back to LA for whatever little time she could spend there.

It was their day off anyway. The Brits and the Germans were going back to their countries to consult their chiefs and Agent 20 had his own ends to tie up. She knew there were convenient flights for her. She had checked the timetable so often while here, hoping to find some window to get back to LA. Even if for a couple of hours.

Sarah dialed Chuck's number from her own telephone now. She was allowed to as she wouldn't be going to the underground facility today.

Chuck couldn't believe who was calling. He smiled and answered, 'Agent Carmichael reports. Madam, yes, madam.'

'Chuck.' Sarah was laughing, 'My taxi will be taking me to the airport in 5 minutes. Will be back in LA in about seven hours. Tell Carina to pick me up. How have you been for heaven's sake? The number of the flight is …'

xxx

Several hours later Sarah's plane had landed safely and she was checking out. When she saw Chuck and Carina at the airport lobby she smiled and waved at them. Once they finally got together she gave Chuck only a light kiss on his lips but hugged him and they stayed that way for a minute without saying anything.

Carina was watching their body language. Sarah, professional, Chuck not so. Yeah, as expected.

Then she turned back to Carina. "Hey Carina, you look very refreshed. Seems like your cohabitation with Chuck is doing you very well indeed.'

'What can I say, Sarah, Nerd magic.' Carina replied. 'Who could have …'

I'm heeeeere.' Chuck had raised his hand waving at them.

Xxx

While driving back to the hotel, Carina called Casey.

'Hey, Sugar Bear. Today is off-limits. Switch off the bugs, the cameras, everything.'

Casey grunted, 'Hmmm, and if I don't, you'll do exactly what, defile me?'

'You wish, colonel, you wish.' She countered, 'Two words – my space, remember?'

"You won't."

'I will. Listen, I'll spend the night there in the suite with them, the _three_ of us. _Nothing will happen._ I'll be there.'

But Casey wasn't in the mood to let go.

"Yeah, _three_. Last time I checked, that's where the word threesome comes from."

'Touché, colonel, touché. But I'm really serious about this. Come around and have dinner with us, OK? Or maybe it'll be you, Chuck and Sarah, then, OK?' She hung up.

'Condescending ….,' Carina was looking for the right word to depict Casey's attitude.

'Reaganite.' yelled Chuck. 'Codescending Reaganite, that's what I called him yesterday.'

'Good agent Carmichael, good.' Carina was nodding and waving finger at Chuck, and he at her.

Sarah was giggling while watching them.

'You two must have had some fun without me here, haven't you?'

They turned toward her, still nodding.

Xxx

Back in the hotel, Carina first showed Sarah and Chuck around the suite– exactly where Casey had hidden all his cameras and microphones, _including the bathroom ones_ and then went to the kitchen to fix some dinner. Sarah followed her there.

'You'll need my help, I think,' she tried.

Carina started pushing her back to the living room.

'No way.' she was adamant, 'I know you're deadly tired. Just go get your feet up.'

'Really?' Sarah sounded so grateful. 'Thanks a lot, I really mean it.'

Carina continued pushing Sarah back into the living room – she wanted to tell something to both of them.

'Listen up, you two _lovebirds_.' she said, watching them blush. 'He-he, that's the effect she was after.'

'Casey will be here soon. We'll have dinner. Then I'll have him disable his monitoring system. After he leaves, we'll have the opportunity to talk for real…?'

'How are you gonna make Casey disable it, Carina?' Chuck interrupted her, 'defile him?'

'Handcuff him again?' added Sarah?

'Maybe. Consider it done. Then, we're going to have some serious talk here.'

'You can now enjoy yourselves, my kids,' she teased.

Then she turned around and rushed back into the kitchen.

While preparing the food she felt totally surreal. It was for the first time in Carina's entire life that she was cooking for people she cared about, people she considered real friends.

They probably didn't think of her as a friend, and certainly didn't trust her particularly. To her, however, they were as close as she ever had anybody since she was 9. She had never felt that way. Ever.

Emotions started taking over again so she rushed to put some water on her face.

xxx

20 minutes later, with Casey in, they were all having dinner, joking.

Toward the very end, Carina got up. 'I'm good for a coffee. Anybody else?'

Sarah was so exhausted that she could only beg somebody shoot her.

'No, thanks.'

Chuck wasn't overly enthused either. He'd rather somebody gave him a horse strength tranquilizer. He had worried how he would be able to sleep with those two gorgeous women in the same room. Well, one of those two would be totally sufficient, and he knew which one that was.

Who would sleep where anyway, he wondered?

Option A: He and Sarah in the bed, Carina on the couch, B - Carina and he in the bed, Sarah on the couch. No, that was absurd. So it had to be Sarah and Carina sharing the bed and he "safe and sound" on the couch. He sighed.

'No, no coffee for me right now. I'm golden,' Chuck said unenthusiastically, sipping some wine instead.

'I wouldn't mind a cup of coffee, thank you very much, Falconi, or whatever your name is now.' Casey was visibly drunk.

'Your wish is my entertainment, my colonel. Be right back', Carina disappeared into the kitchen.

She came back a few minutes later with 2 cups of coffee.

She served Casey first, then put the other one in front of her and sat down.

Now Carina turned to Casey.

'Too much wine, Sugar Bear?' she asked. 'I wonder how this would affect your ...' She was leaning toward him now, whispering in his ear. Her fingers were playing with his hair now.

Casey turned and smelled her perfume once Carina was so close. Since she was slightly leaned forward, her shirt was presenting him with an opening to explore.

Casey grunted.

"That was a completely different one," Chuck thought. 'Libido talking.' He wondered what Carina's foot was doing now, as Casey looked really tense.

Chuck and Sarah were feeling really awkward, 'Those two may need a room', both thought, smirking.

'Finish your coffee first, Sugar Bear,' Carina whispered in his ear.

Casey turned away from her and looked for his coffee. What he saw, however, was Carina's left hand right under his nose. She was holding a small glass bottle, like any other of her eau de toilette spays, just smaller. She pressed it and the tiny stream of aerosol went directly into Casey's nostrils. It was a highly concentrated tranquilizer.

Nighty-night, Sugar Bear,' she said to the already sleeping Casey. 'He'll be good for the next 24 hours that we need to be alone.

The whole thing took about 5 seconds. Carina had picked the moment to tranq Casey very carefully – Sarah was swallowing some good at the moment.

She had been feeling such a tremendous fatigue in her muscles that she would probably not have been able to do anything. Has Carina drugged her as well?' she wondered.

Yes, she had. It was a different cocktail however. It just inhibited the formation of ATP molecules, that contained all the energy we need for our muscles. Many labs throughout the world were working on how to increase ATP for all their clients in various professional sports.

Carina's drug worked the other way. Inhibiting. Sarah's body already had as little ATP as a 2-day old baby.

The other component was slow tranquilizer. It was gradually taking over her.

Chuck started protesting, 'Carina, why did you have to do that to Cas…'

'Ah, look who's talking.' Carina countered, 'And didn't you kick him twice in the head yesterday, rendering him unconscious? Carina was watching how Sarah would react to the news.

'Chuck', Sarah said weakly, her eyes wide open, 'is that …'

'Yeah, hmmmm, err,' Chuck was struggling with the choice of words, 'that might have happened within the past 48 hours, give or take … Sarah, I wanted to tell you but we didn't have the time, I think it was another of those new flashes.'

'Flash? What happened? How did Casey manage to trigger it?' asked Sarah quietly, still in disbelief.

Chuck was again struggling with his answer. 'Ummmmmm, I think we better talk about this some other ti….'

"Casey was mocking Chuck about you and him in the bed.', Carina interjected. 'Casey was talking about Barstow, Chuck's imaginary Kama Sutra, you know you and him, mentioned a condom. That's the last I heard from Casey. Then Chuck kicked him. I have it on tape if you don't believe me.'

Sarah was now staring down. Her complexion, normally so fair, was now so very red. She could feel the blushing wave taking over her entire body.

'Is this true, Ch..uck', was the only thing she could say.

'Yes.' Chuck's throat wasn't able to produce any more sounds now.

Sarah was smiling inside. 'Well,' she told herself…. That's my boy, I guess. Kicking Casey's ass', she was giggling inside.

Carina decided to rescue them from all this awkwardness.

'Casey was pushing the envelope.' Carina said.' All these bugs in the bathroom. It's against the rules. Somebody had to clip his wings a bit. Government agents or not, we have some right to privacy,' she added.

They hated what she had done to Casey but had to agree here.

'Chuck, help me move the dinosaur into the kitchen, there is a small couch there. Casey will have to sleep somewhere after all, won't he?'

Chuck readily jumped up and they both lifted the colonel and started dragging him toward the kitchen.

Casey was so heavy. Chuck, being a bit tipsy himself, struggled.

'Move to the right Carmichael, moved to the right. How could they miss to input the coordinates of our kitchen into the new Intersect.'

'Yeah,' Chuck agreed, puffing, 'that's what I was thinfin.'

The couch in the kitchen was too small for Casey, however. Whatever method they tried to fit him into it, he would slip down the floor.

'It's not gonna work,' Chuck observed, 'Not under the laws of physics on this particular planet. On the other hand, on planet …'

He was blabbering something about one of these science fiction movies.

Yeah, Carina could see that. She had missed this small detail. Everything was planned so well except for this tiny, tiny detail. Dammit.

'He'll have to sleep on the floor,' she said, 'wait for me here, Chuck.'

She rushed back to the living room. Passing by Sarah, she smiled.

'Everything under control. I'll be back in a minute. She walked into the bedroom, took a pillow, a blanket and turned back.

Passing by Sarah again, she raised her finger and explained, 'It's a four-star hotel you know, it gotta live up to its reputation.'

Sarah smiled bitterly.'Manipulating b..' she thought.

Carina stopped and turned to Sarah. She leaned forward, so her mouth was next to Sarah's right ear.

'You know, if I were you, I wouldn't have let Chuck go look for a condom, there in Barstow.' she whispered. 'How could you be sure that somebody wouldn't kidnap him tomorrow and you never see him again?'

'Yeah,' Sarah thought, 'that was what I'd been thinking all these days in Washington.'

Did she say that loud or just in her mind? She was losing control over her senses. Totally unable to get up and leave the table.

Carina rushed into the kitchen to lay Casey down to sleep on the floor.

After they finished with him, Chuck and Carina went back to the living room.

First Chuck, then Carina. They were there back with Sarah now.

"_Chuck"_, Carina yelled, '_stop and turn around, please!'_

Chuck turned and saw that now Carina was holding guns in both her hands – the right was pointing at his head, the left at the sitting Sarah.

'Don't move Chuck or I'll shoot you both. Just don't move!'

Chuck was like paralyzed.

Sarah was still sitting on her chair, unable to stand up.

'You are a lousy agent, Carmichael, very lousy. You should have figured out I was with the _Ring_ long time ago. Don't you dare move!' she yelled out.

xxx


	10. Chapter 10

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter X

Yet Another One

Chuck was still like paralyzed.

Now Carina dropped her left hand and turned to Sarah, pointing the gun in her right hand at her.

"I'm really sorry, Sarah. We were like friends but I have orders to eliminate you." Carina sounded deadly serious.

Chuck wasn't able to see the left half of her face now. Carina was winking at Sarah with her left eye, trying to signal that this is a game.

But Sarah didn't notice. She was so groggy.

Carina had prepared for that. She had installed a camera so that it recorded her face in the whole episode. Later, she would show it to Sarah and say, see I was telling you it's a game.

She went on: "Now the Intersect will be ours. Good bye, Sarah!'

Carina pretended to prepare to shoot. If she had to, she would shoot left of poor Sarah.

Was Chuck flashing? She turned her head to the right.

Greeat. Chuck was staggering. Eyes still unfocused.

'A bit too slowly, Chuck, too slowly.' She thought.

Chuck rushed toward her and kicked the gun off her right hand.

Carina threw the second gun away and took her favorite fighter position.

"OK, Chuck, I see. I'll have to disable you first before I dispose of the sleeping blondie. The future Mrs Bartowski. Too bad it's not gonna happen. Ts, ts, ts …'

'But you are coming with me one way or the other.' She went on and attacked him.

'You know,' she talked to him while they were fighting, breathing heavily. 'I drugged Sarah, that's why she can't move.'

They fought for about 10 minutes.

He was good, the Bruce Lee technique was the right choice for his physique.

But he lacked the strength, the stamina. It was his untrained body after all.

Initially, he was having some edge over her, but not enough to disable her. He had managed to hit her several times more than she him. Be he was losing steam. Getting visibly tired by the minute.

She became more aggressive now. It was time to finish this. His reactions were getting slower and slower, punches weaker and weaker.

She swept his leg, he lost balance and she put him down on the floor, face to the ground. She took a pair of handcuffs from the back of her pants and cuffed him.

She was lying over him because he was still resisting.

'Chuck, now I'll turn you on your back.' She whispered in his ear still breathing heavily. She was feeling excited now, but it wasn't the right time, place, nothing was right for her now.

So she said again, 'Don't do anything funny.' She had to check first if he had recovered from the kung fu mode.

She turned and sat on him, like riding.

He was gradually getting back to normal.

'Listen, this was evaluation of your new abilities, I was authorized by Beckman. Sarah is OK there. Must be sleeping. I had to use her to trigger the flash.'

She was pressing his shoulders to the ground, as he was still slightly resisting.

She approached his left ear and whispered, "We are on the same side, remember? I'm only your sister, did you forget that?' She kissed him lightly on his forehead.

He had stopped resisting.

'Tomorrow Beckman will confirm it to you. Now I'll get up to help you. Then uncuff your hands. Don't do anything funny. You are out of your kung fu mode and I don't want to kick your ass in front of the future Pani Bartowska, OK?'

'OK, Carina.'

She helped him stand up, and then uncuffed him.

'I'm really sorry but we had to do this. We have to know how good you are at protecting yourself. And your future colleagues. If we are to inject you in a dangerous operation, we have to know.'

'Let's go move Sarah to the bedroom. We don't want to leave her there all night, do we?'

During their fight they had moved away from her to the opposite end of the suite.

Yes, she was already sleeping.

Chuck and Carina dragged the sleeping Sarah into the bedroom and put her down on the bed.

'Now what you evil manipulator?' asked Chuck. 'What follows next?' He wasn't ready to forgive her this last outrage so easily.

'Well, to the best of my knowledge, Sarah doesn't like sleeping with her clothes. Will you help me undress her or you'd rather do that yourself?' she smirked.

She was teasing him again.

'Carina, I'm too exhausted now for your games, okay?', he was raising his tone now. 'How many times a day do you have to cross the line?'

'Point taken", she was serious now. "Pick where you want to sleep. Here with Sarah, or on the coach. Her tone was business like."

XXX


	11. Chapter 11

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter XI

The Operation

Chuck didn't think twice. 'Couch is mine.'

'Here is a blanket and a pillow for you,' she said and started taking Sarah's clothes off. 'Don't look soldier, don't look. That's not what a gentleman is supposed to do, you know.'

Chuck was already heading to the couch when she added, 'One more thing. I'm going out for about 2 hours. Or maybe even more. You are in charge here now and I hope Sarah will be in safe hands.'

'Why, where are you going? Are you crazy? It's midnight, already', he was so worried again.

'I need to go to Casey's apartment. All that happened here, how I drugged Casey, is now recorded on his computers. I don't like that. I'll delete it and infect his systems with some trojans. Casey went too far, invaded our privacy too much, don't you think? The bugs in the bathroom, you know, are against the rules. With these Trojans we'll be able to switch on and off his prying.'

'Yeah,', he agreed. At least on the privacy issue they were on the same page.

Actually, the bugs in the bathroom were installed by her, not Casey. Well, she wasn't going to end up in heaven anyway, she knew that already.

'I'll be out for about two hours. It'll take me a bit over 1 hour to infect those. It's NSA level of security."

'Carina, how would you be able to penetrate and infect NSA systems without being detected? They are the best in the world, you must know that!'

'I had several boyfriends that happened to be NSA nerds but don't tell that to anybody if you want me to teach you some of their stuff. They taught me about things. By the way, once Sarah is back to DC I'll have to teach you something about computers.'

He grimaced.

She saw that and asked: 'What's the matter, Chuck?'

'A terrible headache', he replied, 'Maybe it's from the flash.' He was rubbing his temples, forehead.

"Let me give you some aspirin. I promise, I won't drug you."

She went into the bathroom and put a water soluble tablet into a glass and then some water. She added some drops. 'Just to sleep better, Carmichael, nothing sinister,' she said to herself.

Once Chuck took the aspirin Carina left the hotel.

'Our official operation is over, general Beckman, asset evaluated', she said to herself.

'_Time for my little rogue one to commence_.' She smiled.

20 minutes later she entered the Casey's apartment, copied the video-feed on a flash-stick, deleted it from the PC and started probing into the defenses that the NSA people had built in.

It took her more than an hour. Her NSA nerds were right as usual. There were four different layers of defense on standard NSA systems. She would have never been able to do that on her own.

She installed 3 different Trojans, each especially written for her. None of them were known to any computer software company producing antiviral software yet. Neither to the NSA itself. It was a temporary measure. By the time NSA technicians come for regular maintenance, she would have removed them herself.

An hour and a half later she was back at the hotel. Chuck and Sarah were sleeping, Sarah in the bed, Chuck in the couch. Nothing had happened between those two, of course. 'Too bad I had to sedate Sarah.' She thought.

She went to check on Casey first. He was still there under the table, sleeping like a baby.

"Time for my little rogue operation now.' She said to herself going back into the bedroom.

She looked at Sarah. Carina had carefully taken off her clothes. She was in her underwear, sleeping.

Now she undressed her completely naked. Then she went to see Chuck. He was sleeping. She calculated something in her mind and then put the spray bottle she drugged Casey with in front of his nose and pressed slightly, only for tenth of a second. It contained one of those anesthetics they used in surgeries. _This particular one was known to have a particular side effect on male patients._

Then she lifted and dragged him to the bed. She laid him down there, next to Sarah, on his back and started undressing the Intersect. She had already seen him naked, there was nothing more for her to see now.

Then she turned Sarah over him as she was sleeping, her head lying on his shoulder, her arm on his chest. Carina covered him down there with Sarah's leg and then covered them both with the silk, light blue sheet.

_Carina was behaving now like a small girl. She pinched her nose, took out her mobile and pronounced like a robot:_

'Operation Lovebirds almost over. Out.'

XXX


	12. Chapter 12

CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY

Chapter XII

The Conversation

Her little sister was now looking at her, shaking her head: 'Sandra, Sandra, you know what you're doing is _wrong_, very wrong?'

"You are still only 5 years old Carina.' Sandra countered. 'There are some things you don't understand. Yet. Sometimes things between adults get …. complicated. I'm simplifying those now.'

"Are you trying to play God here, Sandra?' little Carina was in no mood to let go.

'Which god exactly, you mean here Carina? No it's not God. In the ancient Greek mythology they had this goddess of love, Venus. She had an apprentice. Eros. I'm playing his role now. I'm Erossina. It's just a game you can't understand. Those two have a serious psychological barrier between themselves."

'And I'm fixing it now. Sorry if you don't like it. I don't like it particularly, either. But I've made my decision on this.'

Little Carina was still silent, so Sandra went on:

"_We both have been watching those two for more than a year, remember? It was a torture for me, for you, for them themselves. And what if tomorrow Chuck, or Sarah is kidnapped, killed_?"

'What if one of them or both die during the next mission? Or even if missions are ok, what if one of them gets a really bad, incurable disease tomorrow?"

"Can you guarantee that something bad wouldn't happen tomorrow?"

Sandra couldn't stop herself now:

'You were with me there, at the sanatorium, Mom, Dad and you, and then, 50 minutes later they told me you are all dead, remember?' She swallowed hard, 'No, I'm not in the mood of taking chances.'

Her little sis was less confident now but still didn't want to give up.

'Yes, you have a point here, but think – how would they feel tomorrow when they find out that they have been manipulated into this? Ah?'

'First, they wouldn't find out. Second, this whole this was so ridiculous. Week after week, month after month, those two have been torturing themselves, breaking up, getting back together, on and on and on.'

Sandra had raised her voice. 'This is like a stupid movie, or a TV series, where the creators prevent the main characters to get together until the very end. Why? Because their ratings will drop of course. '

'Who is the manipulator here? Ah, sis? Your moral highness, could you answer that?',

Sandra was trying to control her anger. She had never talked to her sister like that.

'But you realize how wrong this is, don't you?' Her little sister simply wouldn't let go. 'Wrong, wrong, wrong,' she was singing it in her childish way.

'Yeah,' Sandra agreed. 'That's what I am. A secret agent who uses the wrong methods to achieve my goals. I often solve problems that way. That's what life made me. It's a bit too late for me to change. Sometimes ends justify means. Not always. But sometimes. I decided that this is one of those cases. Sorry sis, I'm the grown-up.'

She shook her head and looked at the naked couple in the bed.

'You'll thank me later, you too,' she said, preparing to leave.

Then, remembering how difficult Sarah and Chuck actually were, she changed her mind.

'I'm not taking any chances with this operation.' She said loud.

She went into the bathroom and took a small glass. It contained the most powerful aphrodisiac in her collection.

Then she returned to the bedroom, opened it and left it close to Sarah's side of the bed.

'Now, we are talking business,' she said and left the suite.

20 min later she was back at Casey's.

xxx

After 10 more minutes, Sarah opened her eyes. Mmmm, what was that smell. Very nice.

Wow, Chuck was under her. She realized something had already happened, something she didn't remember well. She vaguely recalled that they were talking about why Chuck had kicked Casey in the head. He was angry about their little escapade at the Barstow hotel.

Her senses were coming back now but she didn't want to move. She was so comfortable. Hmmm, what was that under her leg? She realized her leg was still over Chuck. Yeah, she smiled after figuring out where her leg was.

A minute later Chuck was waking up. He tried to open his eyes. Still dark. "Where on earth am I? Am I already dead? Yeah, I definitely am dead now. One thing's for sure. It feels like heaven to be dead.

Xx

Carina, already at Casey's, turned the video feed on, saw what was going on there and switched the sound and the monitor off. It was for adults only and she still had to talk to her little sister. One more conversation.

The spy in her, however, left the recording program on. Once a spy, always a spy.

She pinched her nose:

'Good. Operation _Lovebirds_ over. Mission accomplished.'

Xxx

Next morning exactly at 8, Carina called Sarah and told her she was outside the hotel. We need to talk, she told her.

'I'll be there in 10.' Sarah got up.

When Sarah went out of the hotel, she saw Carina at the parking lot and walked towards her.

'You look great Sarah. Slept well?' Carina started, smiling.

The question reminded Sarah what had happened over the last several hours. She managed to put the emerging smile down.

Yeah, I slept well. I slept well,' she repeated nodding.

'Good,' smiled Carina. And did you manage to …'

'Listen, I don't like your rogue telephones you know.' Sarah interjected. 'No more conversations. Too risky. Just wait for me here when I come back. I'll be back in 10 days max or so is the urban legend my new chief is telling everybody.'

"I know you can't talk about the mission. Will it be dangerous?' asked Carina.

'Yeah, very. For everybody. Chuck, me, the others.'

'Well, your lover-boy needs some working out you know. Some muscle building. Stamina. At least in the kung fu department.' She paused, smiling at Sarah. But Sarah didn't get what Carina was implying. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"If you want him alive and well he needs some training. And some more hacking skills, as well. We'll have our hands full here while you're away. Let's go back and have breakfast and try to wake Casey up if that's possible.'

Sarah stopped her. 'Before we go there, one more thing. Carina, you are way too rogue. way, too unreliable, how are we going to work together? Do you realize that this is impossible?'

Carina didn't seem interested in responding to that so Sarah went on, "I checked with Beckman about last night.' Sarah went on. 'She confirmed but she told me that it was your idea to test Chuck this way. Who can work with loose cannon like you? Did you ever think about that?' Sarah felt angry now.

'After this is over and you're back here we are not going to work together, Sarah. I have my job, you have yours. Sorry, you can't change me. I can't change myself.'

Sarah knew her well enough so she didn't try more. She just wanted to make the point in hope Carina finally started thinking more often about her crazy ways.

She hesitated. 'There seem to be some blank spots in my memory about last night.'

'What are you talking about exactly?' Carina asked.

'I remember when you triggered the flash in Chuck and started fighting. Nothing more. Then, mmmm, I woke up, I guess at around 3.30. What happened in between? You weren't here in the apartment, so where were you?' Sarah asked.

'Ah, nothing worth mentioning. We fought with Chuck for about 10 minutes but he was getting tired real fast. So we had to stop. You'll read in my report about his performance in some detail. Then we all went to bed. Chuck, as any gentleman would do, chose the couch so we put you in bed and I was about to take a shower and sleep there.'

'But then I remembered that Casey's monitoring system was on. You know, everything was recorded, including me drugging Casey. So I drove to Casey's to delete it. I was so tired, but I had no choice but to go.'

Carina went on after a second. 'The monitoring system was indeed on there so I deleted the video feed. Then, feeling thirsty and tired, I opened a beer and sat on the couch to rest for a second. It seems like I've fallen asleep there as I woke up in the morning. Why are you asking, what happened here after I left?"

'Ohh, nothing, nothing at all,' Sarah replied waving her hand. 'I just needed to fill in the blanks, thanks. By the way after you deleted the feed of the fight with Chuck, did you leave the monitoring on or turned it off, can you remember that?'

Carina pretended to be trying to remember. 'You know, come to think about it, I might have left it on. I don't remember exactly. Why, what's the problem? '

'Nothing, nothing at all, I just wondered if we would be monitored now again once we get back into the hotel now. Let's get back, shall we?' Sarah smiled at her.

'Sure, Sarah.'

They headed back to the hotel's front door. Right before entering it Sarah stopped again. 'You know, I just remembered. I've had this stomachache since last night. I think it was from your cabbage. My stomach is very picky. I need to buy some herbs from a drugstore and some food products to cook something special for me. You go wake Casey yourself. Good luck with Sugar Bear.'

On this, Sarah turned around, rushed to her Porsche, jumped into it and raced away.

Carina was laughing out loud. Normal drive, it was 20 minutes to Casey's flat. She was sure that Sarah would take it for less than 10 now.

Carina had left the monitoring on of course, but made a copy of the raunchy part on one of her flash sticks.

She was now in the lift, going up to the 7th floor. She suddenly realized what a mistake she had made. How could she forget!

_She had left the whole video feed, with the previous segment, where Carina had gotten them together, the undressing, putting the sleeping Chuck in the bed. And then the aphrodisiac_. Oh god, Sarah's gonna kill her. She must have gotten carried away by her conversation with little sis.

Her little sister jumped up in her head again, waving her finger. 'See, I told you this is wrong, Sandra! Told you so, told you so, told you so.' She was singing again.

"Think, think, think. She looked at her watch. Sarah must be 5 minutes away from Casey's place. There was no way for Carina to get there first now.

Think, think, think. The trojan horses. She rushed into the suite. Found her laptop, started it and waited for the operation system to load. What if the Windows wouldn't load properly? Their famous Microsoft's blue screen of death. Thank you god! OS loaded now.

She started the client part of a Trojan and entered her password. She saw it connect to the infected computer there. Now she was typing with the light of speed, starting the file application, then trying to get to the directories with the video feeds. So many directories, so many damn files!

Chuck entered the living room. He was obviously in a pretty good mood, humming.

'Wow, sis, some typing,' Chuck allowed, 'I thought it was only me who could type that fast. Maybe you really can teach me something there."

'Shut up, Chuck. Don't come closer. It's DEA operation. It's for my eyes only. One more step and I'll shoot you. Just stay there.' She was shouting at him now.

Wow, wow. Ok. Where is ….mmm,' he remembered what had happened several hours ago, agent Walker?'

'Agent Walker, heh,' thought Carina. ' You two should put up a monument in my memory, you agents.'

'The agent you're talking about went out to buy some food and herbs,' Carina replied, typing desperately.

She was deleting the files now. Good. If Sarah had already watching them, the application she had been using wouldn't have allowed for the files to be deleted.

Carina looked at her watch. No. At best, Sarah would be arriving right now. She beat her by a minute or so. Carina closed her laptop and smiled at Chuck. Finished here. Mission accomplished. How did you sleep, Chuck?' 'Imaginary Kama Sutra may be?'

'Shut up Carina. I slept all night. Too tired I guess.' He lied shamelessly. Offense is best form of defense, he thought and attacked, 'You didn't drug me, did you?'

She smiled and stood up. 'I've drugged so many people so many times yesterday that I don't remember anymore.'

"I'll grab a cup of coffee. Want some?' she asked.

'Me, coffee from you, no, no thanks, how could I know that you wouldn't put something in it?' Chuck was shaking his head. 'Thank you very much. Not in a million years.'

Carina laughed. Another mission accomplished. 'Now you know.' She said,' Be careful when somebody offers you anything to drink or eat. You shouldn't be afraid of my coffee. I'm on your side. But from others …'

'Point well taken, sensei.'

Carina frowned, thought for a second and then said, "Chuck, I'm not read into Sarah's new op but can connect some dots. I think that you will have to take part in a very dangerous operation in the near future. You'll need some serious training, besides your abilities. After Sarah leaves, you should really get very serious about this spy business.'

Carina headed to the kitchen.

Yeah, Chuck had suspected that. That must be the reason Sarah had gone to Washington and stayed for so long. Not answering his calls. Sheesh.

The thought of Sarah took him back to several hours ago. He put his hands on his face. Oh, God, finally. He stayed that way for several minutes trying to process what had happened.

Then something started bugging him. How did he end up in Sarah's bed anyway? He chose the couch. Fell asleep there. And then woke up in heaven. And between those two moments? Something was missing. Wasn't it Carina who was supposed to sleep in the bed?

'Carina,' he shouted but then thought, 'maybe I don't wanna know, do I? No, definitely I don't. Sometimes our brains screw things up, he said to himself, 'we should let our hearts … Who said that?'

Yeah he remembered. That's what he told Morgan at the wedding.

XXX


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

Gotcha

Sarah parked her car and rushed into Casey's apartment. Damn, the monitoring system was on. She could see their bedroom now on the camera. It was empty but the way the sheets were scattered around ... She remembered what happened there and blushed. How many times has she blushed since yesterday? But then smiled. Finally. What has happened had to happen seventeen thousand years ago, actually.

She started typing like crazy to get to the directory with the video feeds. Only one file, the one starting at 8 and ending at 9 am was there.

Impossible. Where were the files? How could the system be on, saving files each hour and still on, and the files from the night missing? She was lost. Was somebody playing games with the system? Playing games. Yeah, that could be only Carina, the queen of manipulation.

Sarah wasn't sure how and why. Where is the file from 7 to 8? Carina was at the hotel at 8. She must have left Casey's at least at 7.45 so she couldn't have deleted this particular file ...

She looked at the current feed. Bedroom - empty. Living room – Chuck, wandering around. Where is Carina – yeah in the kitchen, trying to wake up Casey. Nothing suspicious.

Sarah went back to the bedroom camera. Watched carefully everything. Shifted to the living room again. A laptop on the table. Was that Chuck's laptop? She zoomed. No. This was an HP. Chuck was using a Dell now. It must be Carina's.

Sarah was thinking.

She saved the current feed on a file and started scanning it. Carina enters the living room, she's in a hurry, opens the laptop. Why the rush? Sarah checked the time. It was the same time Sarah herself was racing here. Yeah, caught you now! Why were you rushing to the PC, ah?"

Did she have remote access to the system here? Did she delete the files? Why? How could she have hacked a heavily protected NSA system?"

Sarah was already convinced Carina was behind all this, just couldn't yet connect all the dots in a definite way to be 100% sure. All she could do was to ask Chuck if he knew anything.

Chuck was bored to death when he got the call from Sarah. He saw her face on the screen and remembered once again how beautiful she was.

He answered with a robotic voice,"Hello, Who's calling. Agent NerdHerd …'

Chuck, I'm trying to figure out something here. Let's leave the playful stuff for later. Talk very quietly. Did Carina mention anything about being able to control the system here at Casey's? Remotely.

'Sure, she told me that she would infect it with trojan horses, teach Casey a lesson, you know. She'll have to teach me all this stuff after you go back, why?"

'Nothing, Chuck, she hinted to me something of the sort as well. I needed to be sure. I got to know how safe the NSA system is. It's nothing, don't worry. Will be back in half hour. Kissing you, bye.'

She hung up before Chuck could say a word.

'Yeah, Carina had manipulated them into getting together. She had deleted the files while Sarah was racing here. So she knew what was on these files. She and Chuck making love. In more than one ways.'

She sat on Casey's couch and tried to process it now that she knew for sure.

She imagined confronting Carina. They were together on several missions. They had spent a lot of time in hotel rooms, on stakeouts, just waiting. Hour after hour. So they talked a lot about life. They knew each other pretty well. Or so Sarah thought. She knew how Carina would react.

'So,' she would say. 'Are you gonna kill me now? For finally helping you be happy?'

Sarah remembered what happened last night and smiled. 'Well, it wasn't exactly a capital offence.' she said with an evil grin. Maybe she should have waterboarded her, before they declared it torture.

Suddenly, she remembered what had tormented her all the time she was in Washington?

'Why did she let Chuck go look for a condom at Barstow? What if she hadn't?'

'Same question Sarah,' Carina would say. 'What would have happened if I hadn't carried out my little operation?'

'You would go back to Washington in 12 hours. What if your plane crashes? What if I fail in protecting Chuck? What if you or he gets a terrible disease? What if you or Chuck gets killed during the incoming mission?'

"Seize the moment" was Carina's philosophy. 'Because you simply can't know if you will be around in let's say 50 minutes, can you?' she had told her once while they were in Pakistan.

Sarah had heard that from her so many times.

Carina was driven by her own logic, no question about that. She saw the Afghani diamond, she lifted it immediately. But then, while sometimes impulsive doesn't mean always impulsive. She is one hell of a manipulative bitch. That's for sure. I really need to keep her in check from now on.

Sarah wasn't sure there was any point in confronting her now. She wasn't that sure whether Carina was actually wrong.

She laughed. It was one of those laughs, mixed with some tears. Incredible. _She had played them like a bunch of under-fives._

Sarah grabbed her car keys and rushed out. She got back to the hotel without even bothering to look for herbs. When she arrived and got into their suite, Carina, Chuck and Casey were having breakfast.

Casey seemed to have forgiven Carina. Was she rubbing her feet on his leg under the table? Sarah couldn't be sure since the semitransparent table cover was too long. Strange. The was no cover on this table yesterday.

Sarah approached them and looked at Carina. She smiled at everybody and said playfully: "Excuse me everybody, I need to have a word with Carina in private. She grabbed her arm and towed her away from the rest.

Once they were safe, she bent toward her and whispered on her ear: "I know what you did last night.'

'And that you deleted the files while I was driving to Casey's.'

'Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry. I decided to move Chuck back to your bed simply because I thought I could sleep at Casey's. The couch is too uncomfortable anyway."

Ooh,' Sarah thought' so you not only saw these file, but you actually moved Chuck into my bed.'

Instead she said.

'Sorry Carina. On NSA computers you have additional memory chip on the motherboard, where video files of the last 24 hours are additionally stored. Automatic backup. You didn't know that did you?' She was silent for a moment.

She was bluffing, but Carina didn't even try to deny.

'I saw you moving Chuck to the bed with me, the undressing. Thank you, sis." Then Sarah kissed her on her cheek and quickly turned around and rushed to the bathroom.'

'Well,' Carina said to herself. 'It could have been much worse. She didn't kill me after all.'

Her little sister was shaking her head, however.

xxx

Ten hours later Carina was driving both Sarah and Chuck to the airport. Sarah was going back to Washington. Chuck was in the front seat next to her, Sarah on the back seat. Both had pretty blissful expressions on their faces and Carina had a very good idea why.

'Poor Casey,' she thought. Toward the end of the breakfast this morning, he had to face the spray again. And inhale her tranquilizing gas.

This time both Sara and Chuck jumped up protesting.

'Now, why would you do that?' both said at the same time, and laughed at the coincidence.

'Sarah's plane leaves back for Washington in 12 hours. Don't you two think you need some privacy? Anybody?'

They were silent. Yeah, with Casey around or on the monitoring system at home, no privacy.

"I thought so." Carina went on.

Sarah blushed again. She just remembered what Carina did last night.

'I'm going to Casey's now. My bosses called me last night. After I'm finished with this assignment, I'll have to join a major DEA operation. I have a lot of planning to do. I'll be at Casey's. Ciao.'

She lied of course. She wanted to leave them alone.

"You could lay Casey down under the table again. He must have already gotten used to this new bed of his.'

'You two just don't hurt yourselves, ok?'

On this, Carina left Sarah and Chuck alone for the next 10 hours, or what they would call later, "our makeshift honeymoon".

Carina started outlining her plans about Vincenzo while still driving to Casey's. She had to hurry as the witness protection people could move him to another location. If they hadn't already.

xxx

Over the next 10 hours Chuck and Sarah left their bedroom only on several rare occasions. To get some refreshments from the fridge and make sure Casey was sleeping safe and sound.

On the fifth hour it was Sarah's turn to check on the colonel. She placed the spray bottle Carina had given her under Casey's nose and pressed it lightly.

'We really need to make sure we don't get interrupted by a wandering NSA colonel, she thought. "That'd be so not awesome". She was now enjoying herself imitating Chuck's imitating of Devon.

Picturing the possibility of a staggering Casey, entering their bedroom, she shivered, looked at the bottle and pressed it again under the colonel's nose.

Pssssssssst.

'Sleep tight Sugar Bear.'

END

Clearly, there will obviously be a sequel to this as we still have some big events ahead. The Iranian black op, Carina's own agenda and some other stuff.


	14. Chapter 14

Hello again to the readers of _Chuck Versus Agent Insanity_. I have decided to publish the first chapter of the sequel here, as a continuation. Two major reasons. First, it was the logical thing to do as it is indeed closely related to the first 13 chapters, direct continuation of the events, and second, many of the readers of the first part subscribed to the story, so they'll be immediately alerted.

At the end of this chapter I indulge myself into a joke about Devon's vocal abilities, involving a _slight_ exaggeration. My apologies.

Thanks for the interest and the responses.

Chuck Versus Agent Insanity (Part 2)

Chapter 14 (I)

HONEYMOON OVER, BABE

Sarah, Chuck and Carina were still in the car, traveling to the LA airport. They were all engulfed in their own thoughts.

Carina was frowning. She had to find a way to fit the Vincenzo thing into her so busy schedule now.

It was next to impossible. Dammit.

She glanced in the rear view mirror.

The potentially eternal bliss that had been radiating from Sarah's face only a couple of minutes ago was now completely gone. The improvised honeymoon was over. If anything, she looked somewhat anxious.

"What are you worrying about, huh, Sarah?" Carina wondered, while watching her. 'The incoming op? Finally remembered about Bryce? Poor Bryce', Carina shook her head.

Actually, both issues were on Sarah's mind and in a very troubling way. She was doing her best to control her face expression. But she so wanted to cry now.

First, Sarah remembered that Chuck was about to be involved in the most dangerous mission ever. In this crazy country there, they are ultra-suspicious about anything of Western origin. German, Austrian, it didn't matter. Whatever cover story they came up with, he would be under the microscope of the Iranian security services from day 1.

So far, she hadn't been able to talk Agent 20 into inserting Chuck as an embassy employee. And she had tried so hard! Thus, he would have at least the diplomatic immunity protection. That was now her priority number 1 now.

Then Sarah remembered about Bryce, her former partner, and _first_ romantic interest. She has to live through his death for a second time.

Now it was much worse.

The first time he "died" as a rogue spy in her head, and she had mixed feelings about him even if she had mourned like never before in her life.

But now it was so different. He turned out to be a true hero. He had protected Chuck knowing that he'd be hated by so many people for this – Chuck himself, his friends, relatives. He lived up to his promise to Chuck's father, Orion. Then, on the wedding day, he went back there to fight Roark and help Chuck protect his sister. _It was such an incredible sacrifice._

And on top of all that, Bryce had seen with his own eyes how she, Sarah, the love of his life, had turned away from him. He had given everything, including his life for others, and never received anything in return. If life was really unjust to anybody in this world, it was definitely Bryce Larkin.

Sarah realized that tears were rolling off her eyes now. How could she forget about him all these past days?

She tried to recover, glancing in the mirror. Had Carina noticed? She was looking ahead of her. Chuck still looked so indulged in his reverie. Probably remembering what they had said to each other there in the bedroom. Between the action parts. Sarah smiled through her tears.

Her thoughts returned to the operation. It was so dangerous that she really feared for Chuck's life like never before. She realized that soon after she lost Bryce, she was facing the real possibility of losing Chuck.

Sarah's spy instincts were signaling her that she was being watched now. She threw a quick glance at the mirror. Yeah, Carina was staring at her. So was Sarah now.

'Mourning Bryce, right?' Carina thought.

Staring at Sarah, she mimicked with her lips "Bryce?" without letting any sound out.

Sarah nodded at her.

'Yeah, of course it was Bryce. He so didn't deserve this. He had put his life on the line for many, many years and finally lost this one battle.

'Well, there was nothing you can do about this Sandra,' she said to herself and sighed again.

Carina looked at the back mirror. Nothing suspicious behind them, no tail.

_Then she did something she knew she wasn't supposed to. Not now. But she couldn't help it._

She stretched her hand to reach the rear view mirror and readjusted it so that she could see not the back _but herself now._ She knew very well who she would see there. It was her little sister, of course. She was staring at her as usual.

_There were two major mechanisms that used to prompt her sister into action in her head. When she was deep into her thoughts about something important and needed to talk to little Carina – when she looked at a mirror, it'd be the sister there. _

_Same happened also when Sandra pinched her nose and talked like a robot. _

_It was part of their real life interaction as little girls before the crash. Her mom or dad would see Sandra and say, 'Hey, Sandra, go get your sis here, dinner ready.'_

_Sandra knew what was the surest way to find little Carina who so loved to hide somewhere. She would pinch her nose and start calling her sis: "Beep, beep, I can see you Carina, stop hiding, I can see youuuu.'_

_The moment little Carina could hear that, she would start giggling._

Sandra had picked up the trick from her mom, who used it when Carina was only a few days old. Mom would do it when the baby couldn't stop crying. Once she started producing the magic sounds, baby Carina would instantly become silent, mesmerized by the show, and soon start giggling.

Sandra, then 4 years old, got so excited by the effect that she immediately started imitating.

After so many years it still worked.

But now she couldn't do it with other people around.

'Well' her little sister started, 'you _know how it is'. You can't do anything to help him. It is another tremendous injustice, that he's gone. But you can't turn the clock back. It's beyond your powers.' You will never …'_

'I know,' Sandra interrupted. Feeling powerless made her so angry. She pressed on the gas. The car was visibly accelerating. Sarah, being a wild Porsche driver herself, hadn't noticed, but Chuck did.

'Wow, Carina, last time I checked, this was not NASCAR and I'm not your navigator. As much as I'm flattered by your implied proposition, ….'

But she wasn't listening to Chuck. She was listening to her sister. She glanced again at the back mirror. Little Carina was still there.

'_Don't you think you should watch the road? You don't want us all killed, do you?'_

'Yeah,' Sandra growled inside and looked ahead. She was still furious. Damn, it wasn't the time for this now!

She tried to concentrate on the driving but half a minute later she couldn't resist it any more – she looked back at the mirror.

Carina was gone but Sandra still couldn't see her own face there. It was foggy. What on earth was that? She looked again. There seemed to be a small dot. Getting bigger and bigger now, like somebody walking toward her... It was a male silhouette.

Half a minute later she could see that it was a familiar one. Looked like Bryce Larkin. Yeah, it was he who was watching her from the mirror now.

'Hello, Carina, missed me? How long has it been?'

None of them could remember.

'What do you want Bryce?' snarled Carina.

'Wow, wow, what's with the attitude, dear? You know very well where this is going. Now we'll meet and talk to each once in a while.' Bryce offered a really evil grin. 'After all, I'm an integral part of your brain now, aren't I?'

Yeah, Sandra/Carina already knew that. She had read several major books and everything on the Internet on the subject matter. _Her double personality disorder had just turned triple. It happened before to other people._

She shook her head and exhaled, 'Oh God, I got a problem.'

'What,' Chuck inquired, 'what's the problem, Carina?'

'Oh, boy, did she say that loud?' she shuddered at the thought.

Carina was a trained and experienced spy, so she recovered in an instant, 'Oh, my stomach. Obviously it's disagreeing with something. I guess it's the cabbage,' she lied. 'Good that we'll be arriving at the airport in a couple of minutes.'

Indeed, about 5 minutes later, they were there at the parking lot. Chuck was taking Sarah's bags out when yet another, equally annoying trouble hit Carina.

Her mobile phone started ringing. It was the _other_ one. The secure handset. Sarah was standing next to her.

'Aren't you gonna answer that, Carina.' Sarah inquired.

Carina knew who was calling. There was only one person in the world who could reach her on this phone. Neither Sarah, nor her Asian contact could do that. For now.

_And Sarah was the last person in the world that she wanted to be next to her at the moment._

No, it's not that important,' she lied. I'll deal with that later."

Sarah had just suspected that it was the rogue mobile ringing now, but from Carina's choice of words and the way she said them Sarah knew she was right.

She stepped ahead, toward Carina, only about two inches were separating their faces.

'And why aren't you answering it now, Carina? Is this the rogue one?' Sarah was whispering, with as much anger as she could emit under the circumstances. 'Care to tell what other games you are playing currently?'

"Stiff it, agent Walker. You're overstepping your authority here." Carina fought back.

'Oh, really, look who's talking about overstepping. Will you answer it or not?' Sarah whispered viciously.

Chuck had finished with Sarah's bags and turned towards the two female agents a couple of seconds ago.

Wow, they stood there like two Amazons, pitted against each other just seconds away from starting a life or death fight. He wondered what else he'd missed.

'Wow, ladies,' Chuck had started. 'You've got an impartial umpire here, eager to help you res …'

'Shut up Chuck,' both yelled at him simultaneously.

'Move 10 feet away and stay there,' Carina continued. 'We'll be finished with our conversation in a minute!'

"Yes, Chuck, go and stay there," Sarah nodded.

'OK, OK, I don't mind a little Amazon show. What will you two fight for, what's the prize, heh?' he lifted his hands sidewards, obviously implying that he might be that prize.

Both Sarah and Carina rolled eyes and turned against each other.

Well, Sarah went on. 'Are you answering it or shall I?" She offered her hand.

Without saying anything more, Carina made a step back, took out her secure handset, then her third and last secure chip from an inside pocket and inserted it into the phone, after removing the back cover. Then she answered, "Hello sweetie, missed me?

'Oh,' Agent 20 answered from the other side. 'You can't talk now, right?'

'No, I'm at the airport, seeing off a friend of mine. Will call you back later, bye. Love you too.' She hung up.

'See, nothing rogue.' Carina smiled at her.

'Yeah, putting on this ridiculous show just fixed it all, right? From now on I believe everything you say" Sarah was furious but there was little she could do.

"I think you've got a plane to catch Sarah. Let's go, shall we?" Carina turned to Chuck and smiled. "Issue resolved agent Carmichael. We are good now.' She turned and left Sarah there, still fuming.

'Ah, one more thing, Sarah, if you want to talk to Chuck while in Washington, you better use your secure mobile. I'll send you my number once you turn it on there. You are only the second person who'll know it. I guess you wouldn't mind talking to him once or twice a day, right?'

Sarah shook her head and said, 'you are incorrigible.'

15 minutes later, in the lobby, Carina left them to say good-bye, finding excuse in her 'stomach' problems.

Chuck was holding Sarah's hands in front of him, watching her in the eyes.

Well,' he started, 'the real torture can begin now. You are leaving me for how long, milady? How on earth am I going to survive this?'

'That's how it is, once you are in a real relationship, Chuck,' Sarah said quietly.

'Yeah, what do you suggest, we go back to our fake one? Torture will be still the same.' Chuck smiled.

'No, No, No,' Sarah was smiling and shaking her head, 'I think I'll pass on that particular proposition,' she came closer and hugged him. They stayed that way for several minutes.

'Just try to call as frequently as possible, if you want to see me sane and sound here, when you're back, promise?' he whispered.

'Promise.'

'And thank you for giving me the happiest day of my life.' He said very quietly.

'Chuck, this can be possible only if it works both ways. It happened only because it was the happiest day of my life' she countered.

'Point well-taken, boss.' Chuck agreed. 'Are you still my boss, or now I'm the one. And how does that play out when we pursue our extracurricular agenda, because I liked calling you the boss, you know.'

She was giggling. They were about to part when Chuck started again,

'Last question, last question, bzzzzz,' he tried to imitate a quiz show sound, 'who is the happiest nerd on this planet, … in the universe, you have 5 seconds.'

Sarah smiled, 'Noooo Chuck, wrong question here.' Then she went on, '_Nerd_ is the wrong part. I know however who is the happiest girl. Told you the name several hours ago, sorry, bzzzzz, 5 seconds gone, I win.' she had that impish grin now.

Chuck shook his head. "I hate you, you know that, right? ' he said.

'Yeah, I know that, but not as much as I hate you, remember that. Time for me to go, bye Chuck.'

At that Sarah kissed him lightly on the lips turned around and strolled away with her bags.

Carina had reappeared 30 seconds ago and witnessed their interaction from some distance. She had stared at Sarah and then her wrist, signaling that she'd miss her flight.

Carina approached Chuck who was still watching after Sarah's disappearing figure.

'Well, lover boy, time for us to go back to the hotel.' She tapped on his shoulder."My head is spinning at the thought how much work is still ahead of us.'

Carina had to physically push him in order for him to move.

At Carina's request, Chuck was driving on their way back. She chose to sit in the back seat, she told him she was going to try to snuggle and sleep there.

First, however, she pulled out her secure mobile and dialed back the man who called her half an hour ago.

'Hello, boss', Carina started.

'Well,' Agent 20 said. 'Can you talk now?'

'Kinda. I'm still driving back from the airport.'

'Oh, I see, the asset is there with you, right?'

'Yeah, I'm ok.' Carina confirmed.

'So, tell me what you think.' Agent 20 insisted. 'It's time for me to make some decisions on the issue at hand.'

' Yeah, I know.' Carina sighed. 'My opinion hasn't changed, Don, and it's not gonna change, end of story. But the final word is yours, as always. I'm really terribly, terribly tired now. Will call you again soon.'

'Ok, Sandra, over.' On this Agent 20 hung up and thought about what was ahead of them. Not good, not good at all. Those operations were never good.

'Who was that? Don, heh?' Chuck inquired.

'_Ah, it's nothing, Chuck, one of my bosses at the DEA. Talking about this incoming op._ Drive safe, I'll try to sleep a bit.' She tried really hard to get some sleep.

_Chuck was nowhere near feeling safe and normal now. It had just happened again. The nausea, the eyes rolling. He was flashing while driving. _

'Oh, God, what did I flash on this time?'

It was one of those _other_ flashes. A really fast one. A second, max. No kung fu this time. Chuck saw inside his head a big computer screen with a computer program that looked like voice playing and voice analyzing software. With all these moving audio sinusoids.

Inside the lower window, the left half had a red background and a sign 'negative' blinking. The right one however was green, with a 'positive' sign blinking there.

He was still able to hear Carina's sentence, replayed and replayed in his head, again and again.

'Ah, it's nothing Chuck, one of my bosses at the DEA. Talking about this incoming op.'

'Ah, it's nothing Chuck, one of my bosses and the DEA. Talking about this incoming op.'

A couple of seconds later the red and the green halves joined into a big purple one, alternatively flashing:

Half-true , half-lie, half-true , half-lie,...

'Amazing' Chuck exclaimed in his mind. He turn back to see whether Carina had noticed this. No, her eyes were closed, looked like she was sleeping. Good.

'Which part is the lie, huh, ... Carina.'

He remembered his father. He really wanted him to be here now so he could talk to him about this new thing. He liked it a lot.

He didn't need to be Devon, to know how to react on this tremendous news. This was sooo awesome.

Now Chuck was watching ahead the road, driving, smiling and humming. Awesome! This new ability was soo awesome.

xxx

Ellie couldn't believe her eyes. She was looking at two parallel red bands now. It was her pregnancy kit. Positive! It was POSITIVE!

Her heart was pounding like crazy now. 'Oh, God, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, I have to tell Devon, Oh my Gooood.' She rushed back into their hotel bedroom.

Devon was still sleeping there.

'Good job, captain.' She smiled at him but decided not to wake him up. Devon deserved it. She sat on the bed and closed her eyes, smiling wide.

They were only half way of their honeymoon there, at this beautiful resort, but they had stopped being careful about two or three weeks before the wedding. It probably happened then.

She had woken up early and decided to make the test without expecting anything. Just out of boredom and because it was early morning. It was the best time for detecting representative levels of the hCG hormone.

Now she knew what she wanted to do – _get back home_. She didn't feel comfortable here anyway.

She dialed the operator and asked to be connected to the airlines office.

'Oh, God, please give me two tiny seats on some of these flights back to LA. That's all I'm asking you for …'

Whether it was thanks to God or this chaotic economic crisis, but Ellie got what she wanted. Three seats were vacant for the same day and she didn't think twice. The flight was 9 hours later. They'd make it.

'Book, book them for us, I mean two' she was yelling as the connection was so bad.

There was some moaning now coming from the bed.

'Babe, what book, what are you talking about?' Devon was somewhat awake now.

"Anything wrong?" he went on, sensing her anxiety. The first thought he came up with as an explanation was Chuck, now that he was a domestic and international super spy. Chills started crawling up his body. Oh, God.

'No, no, Devon,' Ellie was now leaning over him, totally panicked.

She was slapping his cheek lightly, trying to get her semi-sleeping husband into a somewhat satisfactory state of mind:

'I need you to focus, Devon. Please don't freak out, please. Can you be Awesome for me?

I need your A game now, Devon. Wake up!

Devon had turned his head toward her, looking both sleepy and scared. "Is Chuck ok?"

'Devon, Devon' a very anxious Mrs Woodcoomb went on, "No, Chuck must be fine, but I am …..'

The next 60 seconds entered the records of three majors nuclear powers as a 'world crisis event'.

The energy wave that started from a small hotel on the Hawaii, spreading in all directions caused a middle-sized tsunami, and a certain code word was received by listening stations throughout the Pacific, the radio operators of all nuclear subs in the three thousand radius picked it up, wrote it on a piece of paper and rushed to their boat commanders. They never wondered about the word being in open text, no encryption.

The skippers watched at it unbelievingly, and then rushed to this special room with the special code books. The word reminded them about something really bad. Yeah, the code in their books for 'defence condition 1' or all-out war was :

!4-A-1-w-0-e-93-S-5-o-M-e!

One exclamaition mark at the beginning and the end of the code confirmed it was referring to level 1 of defcon. Then they had to remove the digits and see what the letter code was.

It matched perfectly the received command – AweSoMe.

Still unbelieving most of them gave commands for defcon1 to their crews and went to the communication officer to check this back again with Norfolk.

Similarly, nuclear armed B-2 bombers were already airborne, as were all 187 F-22 fighters, now combing the air for bandits.

At the International Space Station, the respective American and Russian teams had gathered at the opposite ends, guns pulled out and trained at each other, waiting for final orders to take over the entire station. In between, the remaining three international members of the crew stood with their hands up, eyes tightly closed, saying their last prayers. There was no way for the bullets of these two groups to get around them.

It took three very long and tense red telephone conversations and awful lot of truly awesome diplomacy between Washington, Moscow and Beijing to defuse the situation.

That's how powerful Devon's cry was this time. But it matched the occasion.

At the same time, Devon, still unsuspecting the almost apocalyptic effect of his reaction, was dancing on the balcony of his hotel suite, waving his boxers in his right hand and still shouting the decoded form of the defcon1 code.

What saved him from being arrested for lewd behavior was the presence of two NSA agents, disguised as hotel staff. They stopped the incoming Hawaiian police officers and turned them away.

Two hundred yards away, in another hotel, there was another team. Those were still waiting for their final order before they started what they were doing best. Snatching.

Their boss was standing on the balcony, watching through a pair of binoculars at Devon and his boxers. He was shaking his head, muttering: "This is the weirdest snatch op in my entire life." Then he entered the living room door, still shaking his head.

'Get me through to the boss' he ordered.

xxx


End file.
